Five men sentenced to 50 years for firearms and drugs offences

25/01/2013

Four soldiers and a civilian have been sentenced to a total of 50 years for importing guns, ammunition and drugs into the country. The five men were sentenced today at Woolwich Crown Court.

Alison Saunders, CPS London Chief Crown Prosecutor, said: "This was a thoroughly planned conspiracy to bring weapons, ammunition and drugs into the UK organised by four soldiers, based in Germany, and their civilian contact in London.

"Despite one of the conspirators being caught with the five handguns and 493 grams of cocaine in his car when he drove off the Euro Shuttle train from Calais in January, the full extent of those involved was not discovered until phone data was meticulously analysed and a picture of those involved was created.

"These deadly weapons could have gone on to be used violent crimes. The 74 live bullets brought in as part of the importation were very difficult to obtain in the UK and would have been sold to the criminal underworld with the guns. The high-purity cocaine that was imported had a street value of over £70,000 and would almost certainly have made big profits for criminal gangs while damaging lives.

"In this case we applied to a High Court Judge for a voluntary bill to get the conspiracy to import drugs charge back on the indictment for Loveless after it was removed by the trial judge. We were successful in this application; the jury agreed and convicted him unanimously on this charge.

"CPS London will continue to work with its partners in the fight against gun and drug crime in the capital. Successful prosecutions such as this stop these items at their first point of entry into the country. The sentences handed down today should act as a warning to anyone involved in such criminal activity."

Lance Laurent is a trooper with the Queen's Royal Hussars and Duran Wright is a Lance Corporal with the Royal Logistics Corps. Trave Dyce and Lemar Loveless were former troopers in the Queen's Royal Hussars.  They were all based in Germany. Ramone Marshallek was their civilian contact in London.

Background

Trave Dyce
Conspiracy to import prohibited firearms: 3.5 years
Conspiracy to import class A drugs: 4 years

Lance Laurent
Conspiracy to import prohibited firearms: 6.5 years
Conspiracy to import class A drugs: 5.5 years

Duran Wright
Conspiracy to import  prohibited firearms: 5 years
Conspiracy to import class A drugs:5 years

Lemar Loveless
Conspiracy to import prohibited firearms: 7 years
Conspiracy to import class A drugs: 7 years

Ramone Marshalleck
Conspiracy to import prohibited firearms: 6.5 years

Ends