£1m drug baron jailed
Alan Austin, 55, would spend up to six months a year in Brazil, where he had a stunning 30-year-old wife, staying in his apartment overlooking Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.
The 6ft 4in ex-paratrooper, who helped mastermind the importation of millions of pounds worth of drugs into the UK, would spend the rest of his time maintaining a veneer of respectability at his bungalow in a quiet cul-de-sac in Barnstaple, North Devon.
Austin, along with four other gang members, was snared after a three-year covert police investigation led by Devon and Cornwall Police. It culminated in the seizure of nearly £1 million worth of cocaine at Portsmouth ferryport in December 2006. The drugs had been stashed in the fuel tank.
Gang bosses Austin and Jafar "Jeff" Hajebrahim were both jailed at Bournemouth Crown Court yesterday for 22 years.
Their lieutenants, Poria Abraham, 24, and Ali Tavakolinia, 38, both from Bournemouth, were sentenced to 12 and 11 years respectively. Courier Louise Brindle, 33, from Christchurch, who was caught with the drugs returning from Bilbao, northern Spain, was jailed for five years
All were found guilty at Bournemouth Crown Court last month.
Detective Sergeant Jeff Kittle, of Devon and Cornwall Police's economic crime unit, said it was believed there were eight "drugs runs" – claimed to be short holidays – before the bust in 2006.
"It was always our belief that similar amounts of drugs were purchased in Spain and brought to the UK," he said. "Some of that would have been destined for the South West."
The investigation established that Austin, who drove a luxury Mercedes sports car and regarded himself as a "a man about town", owned an apartment and a plot of land in Rio de Janeiro, as well as a flat in Bournemouth and his home in Barnstaple. His Army and fire service pensions were his only official income.
"Quite clearly, he was a man of wealth," said Det Sgt Kittle. "He would fly first-class to South America up to six times a year. We interviewed him over two days but he said 'No comment' throughout."
Austin, married four times and with two grown-up children, was invalided out of the Army in 1978 after nine years in the Parachute Regiment. He was also invalided out of Devon fire service in 1996 after an 18-year career.
Described in court as "controlling, cunning and confident", he was arrested at home in Beechwood Close, Barnstaple, in June 2007.
Hajebrahim, his co-conspirator, who enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and owned businesses and property in the UK and Brazil, was one of the key figures in the gang, financing and organising the shipments of cocaine.
He spent a year in prison in Rio de Janeiro, escaping in June 2008. He was recaptured 36 hours later on a bus bound for Venezuela.
In a legal first, Hajebrahim, an Iranian, was extradited from Brazil to the UK. He pleaded guilty four weeks into the trial. The two men are thought to have met in Bournemouth in 2001.
Devon and Cornwall Police's investigation started in 2006. Officers later joined forces with colleagues in Dorset to look at suspects in both areas as well as South America.
Detectives focussed on journeys made on car ferries between Portsmouth and Bilbao between June 2005 and December 2006. They swooped on December 6, 2006, stopping Brindle's car at Portsmouth. A search found 10kg of cocaine in heat-shrunk plastic wrappers concealed in the fuel tank of an old Vauxhall Corsa.
The packages, covered in Hajebrahim's fingerprints, were worth an estimated £1 million.
Abraham, Hajebrahim's nephew, was responsible for moving considerable amounts of money through a network of foreign bank accounts to South America. He also took part in the "drug runs" from Portsmouth to Madrid.
Tavakolinia was described during the trial as a go-between who helped organised the drug smuggling. Brindle, a single parent living on state benefits, was regarded as a classic "courier".
Detectives are now investigating the gang's finances, with a view to recovering assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Det Supt Russ Middleton, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: "This investigation is an excellent example of how police forces and other agencies will collaborate, at home and abroad, to detect, reduce and disrupt serious and organised criminality impacting cross border and which harm our local communities.
"It was a complex investigation, culminating in a lengthy trial and I would like to thank everyone involved for their hard work and dedication in securing these convictions.
"These convictions will have a lasting impact and will contribute to our aims of making it harder for other such criminals by showing them that they will be pursued and brought to justice and we will also seize their money and assets so that they do not profit from their crimes."
Det Chief Insp John Crossland, of Dorset Police, said: "The case is believed to have been ground-breaking following the successful extradition of Hajebrahim from Brazil under an agreement with the country that, as far as we are aware, had not been previously used.
"Indeed, it is a mark of the professionalism of the investigators and their collation and presentation of the evidence that having initially pleading not guilty, he chose to reverse this decision after four weeks of trial and assessment of the evidence stacked against him.
"This is an excellent example of what can be achieved through police forces sharing resources and intelligence, and working with our partnership agencies to focus upon stopping the activities of high-level criminals."
