London taxi driver jailed for ferrying cocaine to dealers across capital
A London taxi driver has been jailed for more than 11 years after ferrying kilo blocks of cocaine to dealers in his cab.
Craig Rouse claimed he only started drug dealing because of the pandemic but within four days of the first lockdown last year he was found running a stock room with 4kg of cocaine in it. The 40-year-old and accomplices Robert Wiggins, 43, and Kevin Ryan, 45 were given lengthy prison sentences after their arrest in Operation Venetic, one of the UK’s largest crackdowns on organised crime.
Hundreds of suspected crime bosses were arrested last summer when military-grade encrypted communication system EncroChat was hacked by multiple police teams across the world. It revealed a criminal underworld used by hitmen, cocaine dealers and people traffickers across Europe.
A court heard dad-of-four Rouse imported pure cocaine from Colombia and paid Wiggins £500 to mix each block with Creatine or Benzocaine before pressing the cut cocaine into kilo-weight bricks. Rouse then delivered the pressed blocks – featuring a distinctive AK47 automatic rifle design – to dealers around London from his black cab.
Police seized £65,000 in cash, Louis Vuitton clothes, Rolex watches and a 1kg block of the cutting agent Creatine at Rouse’s Buckinghamshire home after his arrest.
At Southwark Crown Court the gang admitted conspiring to supply class A drugs between March 23 and July 1 last year. Wiggins, a father-of-one who runs an auto firm in Notting Hill, also admitted illegally possessing a Heckler and Koch 9mm pistol along with around 30 rounds of ammunition, which he kept in a safe at work.
Rouse was jailed for 11 years and three months while Wiggins was sentenced to 9 years and four months. Ryan was locked up for 7 years.
Prosecuting, James Thacker told the court: ‘Mr Rouse sits very much at the top of the tree, he has a greater role than the other defendants. ‘Mr Rouse organised the buying and selling of commercial quantities of cocaine predominately in kilo blocks, but there were other quantities. ‘He was arrested at his house, a property valued at £800,000, with no indication of how he was funding that lifestyle.’
The prosecutor added: ‘Mr Rouse claims he only commences his drug dealing enterprise as a result of the pandemic. The Encrochat material starts on March 27 and lockdown happened on March 23. ‘In a message, Mr Wiggins states “I put them 4 bits (blocks) into stock”. ‘There is a stock room and they are talking about 4kg of cocaine. One does not go from no experience of drug dealing to 4kg and a stock room within the span of a few days of lockdown.’
Jeremy Rosenberg, defending Wiggins, said that he started working with Rouse due to financial problems providing for his disabled wife and young son. Mr Rosenberg said: ‘Although he ran a legitimate business, it just wasn’t enough to look after his family. He was living hand to mouth, but that is why he entered this enterprise. ‘He is extremely sorry for what he has done to his family. This was not just a job, it causes real suffering to the community.’
Addressing Rouse, Judge Christopher Hehir said: ‘Your father abused drugs in your childhood, which make it so inexplicable why you entered this trade. ‘Craig Rouse, you are in the most serious position, I can’t accept that it was the beginning of lockdown that brought you to this activity. There is no way that you got to this sophisticated activity within a few days. ‘You are obviously capable of far better than this.’
Rouse, of Brook Street, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Wiggins, of Longlands Court, Notting Hill, and Ryan, of Westbourne Park Villas, Bayswater, admitted conspiracy to supply class A drugs. Wiggins also admitted one count of possessing a prohibited firearm and one of illegally possessing ammunition.
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