Latest news with #drugdriving
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Party-loving motorist banned from driving after being caught high on cocaine and cannabis from earlier binge
A party-loving motorist has been banned from driving after being caught behind the wheel while high on cocaine and cannabis. Hannah Brookhouse, 27, tested more than twice the limit for a breakdown product of cocaine after police pulled her Q3 vehicle over at lunchtime in her hometown of Warrington, Cheshire. When quizzed, Brookhouse insisted she was not under the influence of drugs at the time of her arrest and claimed she had consumed them several days earlier. She said she had not realised the substances would still be in her blood. Brookhouse, who has posted glamorous selfies of her nights out and trips to Ibiza, was fined £461 at Warrington Magistrates' Court. She was also ordered to pay £269 in costs and surcharge while being banned from driving for 12 months, after the defendant had admitted drug driving. The incident occurred on Museum Street in central Warrington on March 10 at 1pm. Chloe Durose, prosecuting, said: 'The defendant was sighted by officers driving an Audi Q3. The officers stopped the defendant. She stated she had consumed cocaine and cannabis a few days earlier. 'A roadside drug wipe was positive for cocaine. The defendant was arrested and conveyed to custody where a blood test was taken. 'That too provided a positive reading. She has got no previous convictions.' Blood tests showed Brookhouse, from Warrington, had 109 micrograms of benzoylecgonine per litre of blood. BZE is a breakdown product of cocaine and the legal limit is 50mcg/l. Representing herself, Brookhouse said: 'I was not on drugs behind the wheel of the car. I was not actually doing that at the time - it was days earlier but it was still in my system. I know it's not an excuse anyway. 'I work in Manchester but I know that this is not going to make any difference. 'I just got finance £600 per month on the car and I have now got to sort that all out. 'I know it was all my own fault. I have got to find other ways to get to work.' When asked by JPs whether she knew how long the drugs stayed in her system, Brookhouse replied: 'I do not know exactly how long.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Daughter of notorious drugs lord banned from driving after being caught high on cocaine and cannabis from earlier binge
The daughter of a drug dealing kingpin has been banned from driving after being caught behind the wheel while high on cocaine and cannabis. Hannah Brookhouse, 27, tested more than twice the limit for a breakdown product of cocaine after police pulled her Q3 vehicle over at lunchtime in her hometown of Warrington, Cheshire. When quizzed, Brookhouse insisted she was not under the influence of drugs at the time of her arrest and claimed she had consumed them several days earlier. She said she had not realised the substances would still be in her blood. Eleven years ago Brookhouse's father Richard, then 45, was jailed for 20 years for orchestrating a £100million cocaine trafficking empire from behind bars while serving a separate 22-year stretch for drug smuggling. Her mother Dianne, then 42, was jailed for 14 years after she spent their ill-gotten gains on Botox and expensive hair salon treatments. She has since been freed and was at the latest hearing to support her daughter. Brookhouse, who has posted glamorous selfies of her nights out and trips to Ibiza, was fined £461 at Warrington Magistrates' Court. She was also ordered to pay £269 in costs and surcharge while being banned from driving for 12 months, after the defendant had admitted drug driving. The incident occurred on Museum Street in central Warrington on March 10 at 1pm. Chloe Durose, prosecuting, said: 'The defendant was sighted by officers driving an Audi Q3. The officers stopped the defendant. She stated she had consumed cocaine and cannabis a few days earlier. 'A roadside drug wipe was positive for cocaine. The defendant was arrested and conveyed to custody where a blood test was taken. 'That too provided a positive reading. She has got no previous convictions.' Blood tests showed Brookhouse, from Warrington, had 109 micrograms of benzoylecgonine per litre of blood. BZE is a breakdown product of cocaine and the legal limit is 50mcg/l. Representing herself, Brookhouse said: 'I was not on drugs behind the wheel of the car. I was not actually doing that at the time - it was days earlier but it was still in my system. I know it's not an excuse anyway. Blood tests at the time of her arrest showed Hannah Brookhouse (pictured), from Warrington in Cheshire, had 109 micrograms of benzoylecgonine per litre of blood 'I work in Manchester but I know that this is not going to make any difference. I just got finance £600 per month on the car and I have now got to sort that all out. 'I know it was all my own fault. I have got to find other ways to get to work.' When asked by JPs whether she knew how long the drugs stayed in her system, Brookhouse replied: 'I do not know exactly how long but I do know I am stupid for doing that. I should not have done that ever.' In 2014 a court heard how Richard Brookhouse had originally been jailed for 22 years in 2003 for drug-related crimes. By 2012 he had convinced prison bosses at Kirkham jail in Lancashire of his rehabilitation by volunteering at a charity shop. He was granted days and weekends at home with his wife under day release, but used his freedom to meet with drug gangs in Liverpool and Manchester. Police believe he and his gang subsequently smuggled about half a ton of pure cocaine into the country, using minions to transport sealed drug packages from France under the guise of fishing trips. The operation was said to be family business, with Diane acting as his 'business assistant.' She enjoyed a lavish lifestyle funded by her husband's criminal enterprise, indulging in Botox, fillers and costly haircuts while also receiving welfare benefits. At her husband's trial, it was disclosed she visited a high-end Toni and Guy salon 16 times within a year. She had two iPhones, flaunted thick wads of cash and, upon her arrest, had a receipt for a £1,215 Chloe designer handbag. She was said to have made a substantial cash deposit on her rented property and had a Mercedes CLC 180 Sport and a VW Golf convertible. Prosecutors argued she played the role of his criminal aide, picking him up from prison during day release and driving him to rendezvous points to meet with dealers.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The Albanian mafia fuelling Britain's drug-driving epidemic: How Eastern European Narcos are flooding the UK with £4bn of cocaine - and the heartbreaking consequences
Mown down in front of her mother during a morning stroll through Manchester, she's one of the youngest victims of Britain's drug-driving epidemic. Three-year-old Louisa 'Lulu' Palmisano was struck by a van driven by Rawal Rehman, who had at least 20 lines of cocaine in his system after visiting two massage parlours. Jailed this week for 12 years, the 36-year-old courier is the sordid face of a growing menace, with drug-related road deaths rising by 164 per cent in less than a decade. That cocaine rivals cannabis as the most common drug involved should be of no surprise. After all, it is now cheaper and stronger than ever. The criminals behind this dubious achievement? The Albanian mafia - whose 'supermarket-style' tactics of buying in bulk in return for a smaller cut on sales have helped them seize control of the UK's cocaine market. So just how widespread is Britain's cocaine problem, what damage is it causing, and what are the names and faces of the kingpins fuelling it? Answering the first question is easy: cocaine is now, in the words of one expert, 'ubiquitous'. Snorting 117 tonnes (and rising...) every year, the UK has the world's second highest rate of cocaine use after Australia. Lulu was hit while walking alongside her mother on a Saturday morning in central Manchester Gangs make around £4 billion a year selling the drug in the UK, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA). For context, the annual revenues of the entire British publishing industry were £7.1 billion in 2023. Professor Ian Hamilton, a leading narcotics expert who serves as associate professor of addiction at the University of York, said increasing cocaine use inevitably meant more people were driving while under the influence of it. And while politicians decrying cocaine use typically recite worn stereotypes about it being a 'middle-class' drug snorted at suburban dinner parties, the academic believes this model is now completely out of date. 'Cocaine is stronger and more affordable than it's ever been,' he told MailOnline. 'It was previously seen as a drug for affluent people, but that's no longer the case - almost everyone can afford it and it's easy to get hold of. 'When a drug grows in popularity, more people will drive under the influence of it. Cocaine works quickly but wears off quickly too. So, people won't be high so they think they can drive but may still be impaired and have longer response times.' He credits Britain's binge drinking culture as one reason for cocaine's popularity, with its stimulating effects helping partygoers and clubbers carry on drinking for longer. But using cocaine is far from risk free, with deaths linked to the drug hitting 1,118 in 2023 - up by 30 per cent compared to the year before. The NCA have also blamed cocaine for fuelling domestic violence, and disputes between gangs peddling the drug are frequently a factor behind stabbings, kidnappings and murders. Police credit the Albanian mafia's takeover of the UK cocaine market with a decision taken decades ago to forge direct links with South American cartels. By cutting out middlemen, they can secure larger volumes of the drug at a cheaper price. The Albanians are also said to have forged close links with the Italian 'Ndrangheta, which dominates the cocaine market in mainland Europe, while gaining a reputation for professionalism and reliability. Professor Hamilton believes the increasing purity and affordability of cocaine is a deliberate strategy by organised crime groups to make their product as attractive as possible to consumers. 'Organised crime groups work on the same principles of supermarkets - they'd rather shift a lot of something and make a little profit than a little and not make as much,' he said. 'They want to make sure their product is popular and well used.' The narcotics expert also pointed to factors further down the supply chain in South America, where he said authorities have eased off efforts to eradicate coca plantations. 'Under President Bush that was a priority so there was a lot of pressure from the US, but Biden and Trump are more focused on immigration,' he explained. Although top-tier cocaine traffickers tend to shy away from the limelight, some are so notorious that their names have become widely known. These include Dritan Rexhepi, nicknamed the 'King of Cocaine', who was finally extradited back to Albania earlier in January after 27 years on the run. The kingpin was responsible for trafficking tens of millions of pounds worth of cocaine into the UK and other European countries, and appeared on the Met's most wanted list in 2023. He is said to have been leader of an international drug cartel called Kompanio Bello and is believed to be responsible for shooting dead two police officers in his homeland in 1999. But Albanians are far from the only nationality involved. One recent 'big fish' busted by police was Jamie 'The Iceman' Stevenson, who was one of Britain's most wanted men before he was locked up earlier this year. The 59-year-old, once described as Scotland's answer to Tony Soprano, arranged for £76million of cocaine to be smuggled into Britain inside boxes of bananas from Ecuador before the operation was exposed by decrypted EncroChat messages. Stevenson planned for the shipment of 952 blocks of cocaine to be sent to a Glasgow fruit merchant before it was intercepted by Border Force in 2020. Just months before, police had raided a Kent Valium factory linked to the gangster, prompting him to flee to the Netherlands, where he was arrested in 2022. He was jailed for 20 years last October. Bananas have been used to hide cocaine before, with officers uncovering 2.3 tonnes of the drug worth £186million in a cargo boat in Portsmouth harbour in 2021. But in an undercover operation reminiscent of a Hollywood thriller, police kept the seizure a secret and replaced the cocaine with fruit before posing as lorry drivers to deliver it to the smugglers' warehouse in north London. Armed police then arrested four of the gang during a swoop on the lock-up which uncovered a loaded revolver hidden on a roof beam as well as the electronic key flat to a flat in nearby Islington. While the flat appeared to be empty, police went on to find another 33 kilo blocks of cocaine worth £2million hidden under kitchen cabinets. Last year, Erik Muci, 45, was jailed for 33 years for leading the operation, while his fellow Albanian conspirators Bruno Kuci, 33, and Olsi Ebeja, 40, received 21 years and 17 years consecutively. Petko Zhutev, a 39-year-old Bulgarian, was sentenced to 27 years and 33-year-old Italian Gjergji Diko, 33, to 18 years. While hiding cocaine in sea freight is the most common method used by traffickers, other methods are used too, including submarines and aeroplanes. One gang jailed earlier this year flew £4.2million worth of cocaine into the UK from France on small planes specially designed to evade radar. These aircraft would take off from the coastal town of Cherbourg before flying 70 miles over the Channel to Dorset - avoiding radar by flying low and switching off their transponders - before jettisoning the packages over the countryside. Tomas Bauza, 44, (left) and his 47-year-old brother Ronaldas (right) were also involved in the operation The coordinates of the drop-off locations were agreed in advance, and gang leader Martynas Piecia, 37, or his associate, 47-year-old Lithuanian Rolandas Bauza, would be waiting in a car to pick the packages up. Rolandas's brother Tomas Bauza, 44, made up the fourth member of the conspiracy, which organised at least three flights in total. The drugs were then stashed at a car wash in the tiny hamlet of Spellbrook of Hertfordshire – to the horror of locals who had no idea it was being run by criminals. While Britain's cocaine problem may appear to be spiralling out of control, authorities insist they are taking effective action. Seizures of cocaine at the UK border have been rising steeply, with more than 26 tonnes seized by Border Force in England last year - a 75 per cent increase compared to 2023. And to tackle the trade at source, the government has struck an agreement to station British officers in Colombia - the world's largest cocaine producer - and Ecuador, a key smuggling route. But as the vast size of recent seizures show, the cocaine trade is currently in rude health, suggesting that cartel-related killings will continue to be a daily reality of life in both nations. And with the UK's voracious hunger for cocaine making it 'the country of choice' for drug-peddlers, its impacts - like the heartbreaking drug-driving death of Lulu Palmisano - will continue to be felt here too.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Twelve drivers arrested in five days in new crackdown
A dozen people have been arrested for drink and drug driving, as police target offenders in a rural area. Cumbria police said the arrests were made in the Eden area in the last five days. Ten drivers were found under the influence of drugs and two above the legal alcohol limit. "Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is one of the 'Fatal Four' - which are the four main behaviours which cause death or serious injury on the road network alongside speeding, using a mobile phone at the wheel and not wearing a seatbelt," a spokesman for the force said. They added the majority of the people arrested were local residents and there would be more road patrols in Eden and the South Lakes. The force said: "Officers will continue to hold those who are putting other people in danger to account." Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Rise in under-25s drink and drug driving arrests Police made 1,300 drink and drug driving arrests Cumbria police
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Twelve drivers arrested in five days in new crackdown
A dozen people have been arrested for drink and drug driving, as police target offenders in a rural area. Cumbria police said the arrests were made in the Eden area in the last five days. Ten drivers were found under the influence of drugs and two above the legal alcohol limit. "Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is one of the 'Fatal Four' - which are the four main behaviours which cause death or serious injury on the road network alongside speeding, using a mobile phone at the wheel and not wearing a seatbelt," a spokesman for the force said. They added the majority of the people arrested were local residents and there would be more road patrols in Eden and the South Lakes. The force said: "Officers will continue to hold those who are putting other people in danger to account." Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Rise in under-25s drink and drug driving arrests Police made 1,300 drink and drug driving arrests Cumbria police
