Accidental selfies, Bob the French bulldog help smash international drug trafficking ring

Three British men jailed as accidental selfies – and a photograph of a French bulldog – provide crucial clues that uncover plot to ship $79m worth of drugs to Australia.

Danny Brown helped investigators smash his own organised crime group by sending a photo of his French bulldog, Bob, on encrypted communications platform EncroChat. Picture: National Crime Agency UK

Three British men have been sentenced to more than 20 years jail after authorities smashed a trafficking ring involving $79m of MDMA being sent to Brisbane in an industrial excavator.

In an elaborate, multi-country sting, Britain’s National Crime Authority in Britain helped uncover the drugs ring after two of the men were identified through clues left on selfies and a picture of a puppy on the encrypted platform EncroChat.

One of the men, 55-year-old Danny Brown, of Kings Hall Road, Bromley, Kent, had sent a picture of his new French bulldog, Bob, which showed his partner’s telephone number on the dog tag.

In another photo on the platform Brown, uploaded to his associates a photograph of his television, which showed his reflection.

Another gang member, Stefan Baldauf, 62, of Midhurst Road, Ealing, London, sent a picture of a brass door sign with his face visible.

Brown and Baldauf also sent accidental selfies of themselves on Encrochat – giving investigators more proof they were involved in the plan, which saw the drugs hidden in the arm of an industrial digger and shipped to Australia. pic.twitter.com/43HugORFpT

— National Crime Agency (NCA) (@NCA_UK) December 6, 2022

Brown, Baldauf and another gang member, 50-year-old Leon Reilly, from Dunbeacon in Ireland, exported 448 kilograms of MDMA to Australia in early 2020.

The gang hid the drugs in the arm of a 40-tonne industrial excavator and shipped it to Brisbane, where it was then transported to Sydney to be sold at an auction to a predetermined bidder to make the shipment appear legitimate.

But in Brisbane, the Australian Border Force X-rayed the excavator, removed the drugs, sealed the arm and installed a tracker and listening device before letting it move onto the auction house in Sydney. Police revealed the gang members were worried when six other parties had registered to bid for the excavator.

Reilly, 50, messaged Brown on EncroChat: “There are six people watching it.”

Brown replied: “F***ing hell, that’s not good is it?”

Kingston Court in southwest London heard how associates in Australia were sent a diagram of where the drugs were hidden in the arm of the excavator and how it should be opened.

An X-ray image shows the shipment of MDMA in the arm of an excavator shipped to Australia. Picture: National Crime Agency UK

It is alleged in May 2021, two Australian gang members tried to find the drugs, searching for two days before realising something was wrong.

On Tuesday, Brown was jailed for 26 years, Baldauf for 28 years and Reilly for 24 years.

National Crime Agency operations manager Chris Hill said: “These men thought they were safe on EncroChat but my officers did a superb and painstaking job of building the evidence against them through a mixture of traditional and modern detective skills.

“Brown and Baldauf’s accidental selfies and the photo of Bob the dog were the cherry on the cake in proving who was operating those handles.

“But the OCG went to enormous lengths, even rigging an auction, in a bid to transfer the drugs to Australian conspirators.

“The NCA works with partners at home and abroad to protect the public from the dangers of Class A drugs which wreak so much misery on communities in the UK.”