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Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The Colombian immigrant who became 'Britain's Pablo Escobar': How Jesus Ruiz Henao built a £1bn drug empire in the UK - all while hiding in plain sight
The Colombian immigrant dubbed 'Britain's Pablo Escobar' after juggling a TfL job as the driver of a London bus while running a billion-dollar cocaine empire has spoken out for the first time on TV, claiming, no doubt with little remorse, that he was a 'pioneer'. Jesus Ruiz Henao, now 63, reflects on his 'Hollywood' life story in a two-part Discovery+ docuseries The Bus Driver: Britain's Cocaine King, set for release on Monday. In his first ever television interview, the mild-mannered drug kingpin - currently a 'VIP' inmate at a high-security prison in Bogotá - told of how he sought refuge in London after becoming the target of Colombian cocaine cartels over drug deals gone awry. He charted his journey to becoming the country's most notorious drug dealer - with Henao blacklisted as a 'career criminal' by the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) alongside underworld bosses, fraudsters, and money launderers. With what sounds like a hint of pride, Henao described how he flew under the radar for years before he was finally nabbed in one of the largest operations carried out by the Metropolitan Police - with more than 100 officers recruited to bring him down. 'My life story is a lot like a Hollywood movie,' Henao said, seated before a camera crew in the courtyard of La Picota prison. 'I was trafficking drugs for over 10 years and I was arrested and sentenced for [importing] over a billion pounds of cocaine. 'I was like a pioneer of cocaine in the UK,' Henao appeared to brag. The new series, which premieres on Discovery+ on Monday, also features interviews with members of Henao's large family - including his doting younger sister Omaira and police officer brother Fabio, who revealed the cartels 'tried to kill me three times'. 'I hate drug dealers,' the nobler Henao spoke of his decision to serve in the narcotics branch of the Colombian police force. 'My brother, he never told me what he was doing because he knows what I think about all that.' Fabio wasn't the only one fooled by Henao's gentle, salt-of-the-earth demeanour; in fact, the Colombian ran his massive drug operation for a decade while posing as a amiable bus driver before he was arrested in November 2003. American journalist and Henao's biographer Ron Chepesiuk, who told Henao's story in the the book The Real Mr Big, noted: 'If you listen to such a story for the first time, it reads like fiction. 'A poor Colombian refugee becomes the biggest drug trafficker in British history - and nobody knew about it.' On why he believes Henao went undetected for so long, Ron said Henao doesn't look like your average dealer. 'Most drug dealers are nasty. They kill a lot of people, they sell a lot of drugs without worrying about the consequences of it,' he continued. 'And Jesus is the most unusual drug trafficker you'll ever meet. 'He's soft spoken, he's very polite,' Ron, who counts himself among Henao's friends, added. Before he became one of the world's most wanted criminals, Henao was a small-time drug smuggler in his home country, gripped by cartel violence against the backdrop of the Medellin and Cali groups' bloody rivalry in the Eighties. In the documentary, which follows the cocaine trail from the Colombia into Europe in the Noughties, Henao recalled being gifted a bicycle by Pablo Escobar - the ruthless Medellin boss who became one of the world's richest criminals - at one of his political rallies around Christmas. 'My first bicycle in my life, I got it from the hands of Pablo Escobar,' Henao said, with a childlike glee. Watching Escobar gave Ruiz-Henao purpose, he revealed, as the Pereira-native who grew up in poverty set his sights on becoming wealthy beyond belief - by whatever means necessary. 'I was thinking he has the power, he has the money,' Henao said. 'I want to be powerful like them. I want to have everything.' Ron described how Henao and one of his early associates, Pedro, set up a 'mini cartel' that would buy drugs from the jungle for cheap and sell it in the city for double or triple the money. 'Pedro and Jesus were always scheming, trying to figure how they can make more money from the drug trade,' the true crime writer continued. Henao knew from growing up in the cocaine-producing region that the American market had already been seized by the Medellin and Cali cartels, but the European market was wide open - one that Henao decided to own. He was forced to flee the country after a few of his drug deals went awry and Henao ended up owing money to the cartels that he couldn't afford to pay. After an assassination attempt, Henao moved to the Hendon in London where he recalled being enchanted by the culture, diversity, and 'moving stairs' or escalators in Tube stations. His wife Maria contacted Jeremy Corbyn, long-serving MP of Islington North, to help them secure political asylum as immigrants forced to flee Colombia where they were 'endangered', he said. Henao's application was refused twice but he, ultimately, secured indefinite leave-to-remain after his wife's bid was successful. In the documentary, which includes previously unseen footage of Henao's arrest as police busted his drug operation, he recalled getting his bus driver's license before being assigned the 134 route - from North Finchley to University College Hospital in Euston. 'I was just living a normal, standard life,' he said. When people realised Henao - described in the documentary as a master 'manipulator' - was Colombia, he claimed, they inevitably asked him for blow before he realised he was sitting on a gold mine. 'When you arrived in the UK, did you intend to carry on dealing or did you want to go straight?' a member of the film production crew asked Jesus. He replied: 'I wanted to just make a few pounds and live a normal life, but I already had my contacts for the cocaine and that was easy to start doing, to start dealing drugs.' The film which releases on Monday sees how Ruiz-Henao set up a distribution network from Colombia via Spain and into the UK - all while posing as a respectable, hard-working immigrant. One of the other ways Ruiz-Henao's lavish lifestyle that was, in reality, funded by drug money didn't raise alarm bells was because he won £100,000 in a spot-the-ball competition in the early 90s. Ironically, it was when he decided to quit the business that Ruiz-Henao was arrested, as detailed in Ron's book that he co-wrote. 'After reflecting a long time, I decided to get out of the business,' an excerpt reads. 'The police were on to me. I spoke to my boss Sergio in Colombia and my friends there, telling them that I was getting out because of the heat that was on me.' After he returned from a holiday in the Carribean, ready to move on from a life of crime that saw him earn £1 billion, Ruiz-Henao's associate-turned-informant Fernando finally helped the Metropolitan Police nab him. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison at London's Southwark Crown Court.
Daily Mail
18-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Gangster granny who used family to run £80m drug empire and splashed out on designer accessories for her cat is jailed for 20 years
A gangster granny who ran a £80million drug empire with her family transporting cocaine around the UK was jailed for 20 years yesterday. 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'. The 65-year-old recruited her sister, four of her children, their partners and friends to ferry around a metric tonne of cocaine worth £80million from ports such as Harwich to make deliveries in Bristol, Cardiff, London, Leicester, Birmingham, Rotherham, Sheffield and Bradford, paying relatives £1,000 a trip. Yesterday the 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 grandmother, 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. But when detectives raided Mason's £1.5milliion terraced home in Islington, they found the self-proclaimed gangster gran not in her designer clothing, but sitting in her nightie in stunned silence on the toilet. The court heart that such was Mason's greed, she kept a share of her family's 'wages' and even enlisted her drug-addicted son Reggie who had suffered a brain injury as a result of a cocaine overdose. Mason made at least 20 drug deliveries, with officers following her from her Tufnell Park home to pick up shipments from Harwich Port at 6am before the cocaine blocks were divided amongst supermarket bags for life and sent to her offspring. When police raided her children's homes, they found bags of drugs hidden in designer Chloe bags and bundles of cash. But some of the gang members claimed that the trips were just random day trips chosen by their toddlers playing with the sat nav. Following an 11-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court, the gang were convicted of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs in April. Judge Philip Shorrock said Mason played a 'leading role' in the distribution of a tonne of cocaine across the UK, telling her: 'As a mother you should have been setting an example to your children, not corrupting them.' Pictured are Demi Kendall and Tina Golding who were jailed for 13-and-a-half years and 10 years respectively Lillie Bright and Demi Bright were sentenced to 13 and 11 years in jail respectively Reggie Bright and Anita Slaughter received 15 and 13 years respectively The gang were sentenced to a combined 106 years and six months' imprisonment. Mason was jailed for 20 years, her daughters Roseanne Mason, 29, and Demi Bright, 30, received 11 years, while her youngest daughter Lillie Bright, 26, was sentenced to 13 years. Mason's son Reggie Bright, 24, was sentenced to 15 years, his partner Demi Kendall, 31, received a 13-and-a-half year sentence and a family friend Anita Slaughter, 44 also received 13 years. Mason's elder sister Tina Golding, 66, was also jailed for 10 years. Met Detective Constable Jack Kraushaar said: 'This was a sophisticated operation which was extremely profitable for those involved. 'Following months of work by the Met Police to relentlessly pursue these perpetrators, we were able to arrest and eventually convict them, preventing more drugs flooding streets across the UK which leads to violence, antisocial behaviour and misery for communities. 'The group were sucked into criminality, selfishly attracted by the financial benefits of the drug-dealing to fund lavish lifestyles. 'They were unaware we were coming for them and this sentencing should act as a deterrent to those who think about committing this type of crime.' Pictured: The expensive collar Mason ordered for her beloved cat Pictured: A small pet leash worth £205 Mason ordered for her beloved cat Robert Hutchinson, Specialist Prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: 'This was no ordinary family. Instead of nurturing and caring for her relatives, Deborah Mason recruited them to establish an extraordinarily profitable criminal enterprise that would ultimately put them all behind bars. 'The CPS worked closely with the police from the earliest opportunity to make sure we had ample evidence to prosecute them for the full extent of their actions. 'We reviewed thousands of messages and other digital evidence that not only revealed incriminating messages sent between them, but also a significant pattern of deleting messages, helping to prove that they all knew exactly what they were doing.'
