Latest news with #DeborahMason
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Watch: the moment a drug dealer police nicknamed 'Gangster Granny' is arrested
THIS footage shows the moment a drug dealer nicknamed 'Gangster Granny' was arrested following an investigation into her gang picking up shipments of cocaine at an Essex port. Deborah Mason, 65, the leader of the family-run group, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs at Woolwich Crown Court on July 18. Mason and seven other people - six women and one man - were sentenced to a total of 106 years and six months in prison for their involvement in supplying nearly a tonne of cocaine over seven months. The group transported packages of imported cocaine and drove them around London, Bradford, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff between April 2023 and November 2023. Footage shows Mason in disbelief that she was being arrested. Arrested - Deborah Mason last year (Image: Metropolitan Police/PA) Mug shot - Deborah Mason (Image: PA/Metropolitan Police) The Met Police's investigation saw officers receive information on April 20, 2023, that a hired car driven by Mason left her house in Crayford Road, Tufnell Park, London, at 4.30am and arrived at Harwich Port at 6.20am. Police said regular trips were made by Mason to the port alongside the couriers to collect the cocaine. The group used encrypted messaging site Signal to communicate. Officers trawled through thousands of messages following their arrests which helped prove their criminal movements. Officers discovered through the messages that Mason - known as Queen Bee - was living an extravagant lifestyle with her profits, purchasing a Gucci collar and lead worth £400 for her cat. During the crime group's operation, the drugs had an estimated wholesale value of between £23million to £35million and a street value of £80million. The Metropolitan Police arrested all members of the gang in May 2024 except a woman called Anita Slaughter who was arrested in November 2024 after being identified from the messages.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The matriarch kingpins running Britain's drugs gangs: Why more women are turning to a life of organised crime as the masterminds behind family underworld empires
Feigning surprise as she's arrested in a dawn raid, 65-year-old drug baron Deborah Mason tells an officer reading out the charges: 'Me? No, come on!' The grandmother and mother to seven children would be exposed in court as the head of a £80million cocaine trafficking network. As her comment suggests, Mason hardly resembles your typical kingpin. But she is less rare than you might think, with the Londoner only the latest of a string of women over 50 to end up in jail for overseeing major drug empires. They include Farzana Kauser, 54, who was locked up last week for smuggling £14.4m of cocaine into Britain using her four sons, daughter, and daughter-in-law. Also behind bars is 52-year-old Lynne Leyson - a seemingly respectable mother described by prosecutors as the 'dominant force' of a pistol-wielding crime clan. Professor David Wilson, a leading criminologist, insisted we 'should not be surprised' by the phenomenon of female gang bosses. And far from being a disadvantage in the brutal world of organised crime, he believes their gender is a major asset. Do you have a story? Email Deborah Mason, 65, revelled in her status as a cocaine kingpin, instructing her own family, whom she recruited as drug runners, to call her 'Gangster Debbs' and 'Queen Bee' 'We often seem to feel that we should be shocked when a woman has committed a murder, sexually abused a child, or is running an organised crime group, but we shouldn't be,' he told MailOnline. 'The underlying personality or skill set of a female organised crime boss isn't any different from a man's. Often, it's just obvious that the person who is most suitable to lead a gang just happens to be a woman. 'It's always an attribute to be a woman in crime because people find it surprising, and they can use that surprise to their advantage. Female bosses can escape detection for longer because of the gender assumptions that we make about them.' Mason revelled in her underworld status, instructing her own family - whom she recruited as drug runners - to call her 'Gangster Debbs' and 'Queen Bee'. The grandmother recruited her sister, four of her children, their partners and friends to ferry around a metric tonne of cocaine worth £80m from ports such as Harwich to make deliveries in Bristol, Cardiff, London, Leicester, Birmingham, Rotherham, Sheffield and Bradford, paying relatives £1,000 a trip. Last week, she and her 10-strong family gang from Islington, North London were jailed for more than 100 years at Woolwich Crown Court. Prosecutor Charlotte Hole told the court that in many of the drug runs between April and November 2023, Mason brought her grandchildren as young as two who sat in a child's car seat amongst cardboard boxes stuffed with 5kg blocks of cocaine. With the profits of her drug empire, the mother-of-seven splashed out on lavish holidays to Dubai and Bahrain, designer clothing, handbags and a £400 Gucci cat collar and lead with 9ct gold engraved name tag for her beloved Bengal cat called Ghost. The expensive collar and leash that Mason ordered for her cat using money from drug sales Mason, who was claiming over £50,000 a year in benefits, planned to make £90,000 in profits by the end of the year which she intended to pay for plastic surgery in Turkey. Judge Philip Shorrock referenced her parental role during sentencing, saying: 'As a mother you should have been setting an example to your children, not corrupting them.' Bradford mother Farzana Kauser also exploited societal expectations to her advantage, with officers who investigated her describing how neighbours assumed she like any other 'thoughtful, loving mum'. When she was arrested while meeting her four sons, daughter and daughter-in-law at Birmingham Airport in November 2024, she insisted she was merely collecting them in her car to take them home. In reality, they were carrying 180kg of cocaine with a street value of around £14.4m after picking it up in Cancun, Mexico. The plot saw the relatives book short one or two-night trips to Amsterdam or Dublin, where they would travel without any luggage. They then timed their return to coincide with flights from Cancun where a corrupt insider placed suitcases stuffed with cocaine onto the Birmingham-bound flights for them to retrieve at baggage collection. Some of it was due to be passed to a courier from another organised crime group, with the remainder taken back to Kauser's home on Waterlily Road in Manningham, Bradford, before being distributed. Kauser was on Friday jailed for 13 years and four months at Birmingham Crown Court Her youngest son was just 17 when she 'encouraged' him to courier drugs on her behalf in what prosecutors called a 'sophisticated and well-planned operation' involving high-purity cocaine. Rick Mackenzie, from the National Crime Agency, said Kauser was 'very well practised in her life as a high-end cocaine trafficker'. He added that 'to her friends and people who thought they knew her', the gangster 'was a thoughtful, loving mum who seemed very normal'. The same could be said for Lynne Leyson, who presented herself as a respectable, rural grandmother while living a double life as a multi-million pound drug runner. The 52-year-old operated her empire from Pibwr Farm in quiet Capel Dewi, Carmarthenshire, aided by relatives including her husband Stephen and his son Samson. But Leyson disappeared before she was due in court to face justice - and was jailed for nine years by a judge in her absence. She stayed on the run for 14 months while on the Most Wanted list, evading a major police search by changing her name by deed poll, obtaining a fake passport and posing as a neurologist working for the NHS. The 'gangster godmother' was finally caught after 429 days at large when police were waiting when she returned to her farm to check on her beloved Rottweilers. After she finally faced justice last year, one neighbour said: 'We just couldn't believe it. 'They seemed like a normal farming family, well a bit rough around the edges like a lot of country people. 'Lynne seemed very normal really - not a cocaine dealer like she was. It is all very odd.' While some female dealers oversee sprawling operations, others attempt to stay under the radar by peddling smaller amounts. They include Julie Cobley, 62, who funded her enviable middle-class lifestyle in the Northamptonshire village of Deanshanger by dispensing wraps of cocaine from the doorstep of her £400,000 semi-detached home. A court heard how neighbours in the quiet, leafy street initially took Cobley at face value but at least one grew suspicious at the constant stream of visitors who would turn up at any time of night and approach her house - without ever going in. Those living in the village would regularly see her out walking her Dachshund and terrier dogs or driving her £30,000 Jaguar It emerged that she had been leaving packages of drugs by her bins and in small bags taped just inside her letter box for her clients to collect, dropping off notes of cash in exchange. After a police raid uncovered £8,500 of cocaine inside her home, she was convicted of possession with intent to supply a Class A drug and handed 18 months' imprisonment, suspended for a year.
Time of India
20-07-2025
- Time of India
Meet 65-year-old ‘Gangster Granny': UK's drug cartel mastermind Deborah Mason, jailed for 20 years over £80m Cocaine trade
Deborah Mason(left), Roseanne Mason(right) (Source: Metropolitan police) A 65-year-old grandmother masterminded one of UK's most sophisticated drug trafficking operations, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Deborah Mason, infamously nicknamed the 'Queen Bee' and 'Gangster Granny,' ran a sprawling family-led drugs cartel that trafficked more than a ton of cocaine worth up to £80 million across the country. Mason and seven of her relatives, including her sister and children, operated the high-level narcotics ring over a seven-month period from April to November 2023, reported The Guardian . On Friday, she was sentenced in a London courtroom alongside other key members of the syndicate. The court heard that Mason's gang used a network of couriers to transport massive quantities of imported cocaine. The drugs were distributed from London to several major cities including Bradford, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol, and Cardiff. The cartel's value of cocaine ranged between £23 million and £35 million, while its street value was estimated at a whopping £80 million. Despite the scale of the operation, prosecutors noted that Mason's relatives were not coerced into joining the syndicate, but were instead "motivated by financial benefit." Mason's 29-year-old daughter, Roseanne Mason, played a crucial role in the cartel's logistics. She was responsible for managing collections of the drug shipments. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like American Investor Warren Buffett Recommends: 5 Books For Turning Your Life Around Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo In a show of how deeply involved the family was, Roseanne even babysat the children of other couriers so they could continue working uninterrupted. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison for her part in the operation. Other members of the gang received lengthy prison terms as well, with sentences ranging from 13 to 15 years based on their individual roles in the criminal enterprise. The Metropolitan Police launched a thorough investigation into the drug ring, employing a range of surveillance tactics, including analysis of extensive call data and physical tracking of suspects. Acting on critical intelligence, most of the gang members were apprehended in May 2024.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Yahoo
‘Gangster granny' who oversaw £80m drugs operation foiled by police
A "gangster granny" crime gang boss has been sentenced for dealing drugs with a street value of £80 million across the UK. Deborah Mason, 65, of Crayford Road, Tufnell Park, dubbed 'Queen Bee', and seven other members of the gang, were sentenced to a total of 106 and a half years at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday (18 July) for their involvement in supplying nearly a tonne of cocaine over seven months. The group used the encrypted messaging site Signal to communicate. Officers found messages showing Mason was living an extravagant lifestyle with her profits, buying a £400 Gucci collar and lead for her cat. Mason, dubbed 'gangster granny' by the Metropolitan Police, directed other members of the gang and was in contact with an upstream supplier called Bugsy. She was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and sentenced to 20 years in prison. She took part in 20 trips, delivering 356kg of cocaine, and also made trips to deliver and collect cash.
South China Morning Post
20-07-2025
- South China Morning Post
UK's ‘Queen Bee' stung with jail term as US$107 million cocaine empire crumbles
'Gangster granny', the 65-year-old leader of a UK crime family, and seven of her associates were sentenced to a combined 106 years in prison for dealing more than US$100 million worth of cocaine across the country, officials announced on Friday. Deborah Mason, who is also known as 'Queen Bee' and 'Gangsta Deb', recruited her sister, her four children and others close to her family to work as couriers and distribute her product across London as well as Bradford, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff, the Independent reported. Over a span of about seven months in 2023, Mason's drug network peddled nearly a tonne of cocaine with a street value of nearly US$107 million. 'This was a sophisticated operation which was extremely profitable for those involved,' said Metropolitan Detective Constable Jack Kraushaar, who led the investigation. Mason used the profits to fund her lavish lifestyle, which included extravagant holidays and a collection of luxury high-end designer goods. According to the BBC, she at one point bought a Gucci collar and leash worth more than US$500, and a nine-carat gold engraved name tag for her Bengal cat, Ghost. Mason in April was found guilty of conspiracy to supply class A drugs. A judge on Friday sentenced her to 20 years in prison.
