A drugs baron who ran a multi-million pound smuggling ring by hiding heroin and cocaine in coffee tins has been jailed for 16 years.
Karl Wilson and his gang rented flats in Aberdeen which were either used to store drugs or were occupied by a “runner”.
Street-level suppliers would then call a mobile number and order heroin or crack cocaine.
The phone was traced back to one of Wilson’s associates in England, who would call the runner and give them the details of where to meet the buyer.
His team hid the Class A drugs in catering-sized coffee tins or spare wheels and couriered them north of the border by train, coach or hire car from their base in Wolverhampton.
Officers believe up to half a stone of Class A drugs were being transported from England to Scotland every week when the gang’s operation was at its peak.
Wilson, 58, fled Britain in 2008 after police seized a large amount of heroin and cocaine.
Eight of his gang members were then sentenced to more than 30 years in jail in 2010 and 2011 as part of the long-running Operation Sorcerer investigation.
Wilson had laundered the profits of the drugs and lived off the money in a villa in Bulls Bay in Luceau, one of Jamaica’s tourist hotspots.
British police began extradition proceedings in March 2011 and he was arrested by Jamaican authorities almost two years later in February 2013.
He was then returned to the UK on June 17 last year to face charges of conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine and four counts of money laundering between 2000 and 2009.
Wilson admitted the charges when he appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Speaking after he was jailed, Detective Chief Inspector Martin Brennan, of West Midlands Police, said: “This was an organised group of individuals who had a very slick operation to distribute drugs in Aberdeen, but it was not slick enough to avoid detection by police.”
Who is Karl Wilson?
Karl Wilson’s gang smuggled heroin and cocaine in tins of Asda coffee soaked in vinegar to put sniffer dogs off their scent.
Wilson, whose nickname was “Mafia” in the underworld, first arrived in Aberdeen with his associate Melanie Clarke in 2002.
Clarke would take phone calls from people who wanted cocaine and heroin while Wilson went out and did the dealing.
The pair got their big break in December 2002 – because other drug barons had gone home for Christmas.
They took £40,000 in cash back to Wolverhampton to buy more drugs and Wilson’s gang started shipping heroin to Aberdeen twice a week.
At the height of the operation, they took just four days to sell a kilo – 2.2ln – of heroin and police found drugs worth £50,000 in the tins when arresting two of the gang members.
Clarke, who was released from prison in 2012 after serving half her sentence of four years and two months, died in a house fire 12 months ago aged 34.
Wilson, who holds dual British and Jamaican citizenship, originally came to the UK in his late teens and set up home in Willenhall in the west midlands.
He worked as a panel beater and in foundries until the collapse of the metal work industry in the region before turning to pimping and then becoming a drug dealer.