Dog photo foiled trafficking scheme as police track down gang who sent drugs to Australia in digger

A dog photo sent by a drugs trafficker helped police take down his gang who sent millions of pounds worth of MDMA to Australia in a digger.

Danny Brown, of Kings Hall Road, Bromley, Kent, operated on EncroChat under the handle "throwthedice".

The 55-year-old used the platform to send an image of his pet, Bob, to co-conspirator Stefan Baldauf, 62, as they worked on a plot to send 448 kilos of MDMA worth £45m to Australia.

The picture showed his partner's phone number on the dog tag.

National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators zoomed in on the phone number and used it to prove Brown was part of the conspiracy.

The gang members sent the 40-tonne Doosan digger to Australia from Southampton docks with drugs hidden in the arm.

Their plan was to sell it when it got there.

They organised an online auction to make the excavator’s arrival in Australia look legitimate.

But they rigged it by agreeing a pre-arranged bid with the intended recipients.

However, the auction provided the gang a nervous moment when other potential buyers registered their interest in the digger.

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

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

Brown, Baldauf and Reilly were convicted in June at Kingston Crown Court of drugs trafficking with three other men.

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

Chris Hill, NCA operations manager, 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.

“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.”

Australian Border Force officers x-rayed the digger, removed the drugs, sealed the arm and installed a tracker and listening device before letting it move onto its intended destination - an auction house in Sydney.

On 18 May, two men from the Australian gang spent two days trying to find the drugs before realising something was wrong.

EncroChat messages show the UK men launched their own investigation and held meetings to find out who had stolen the drugs.