UK Drug smuggler ordered to pay £1m

[Pondlife]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/6994650.stm

Last Updated: Friday, 14 September 2007, 15:39 GMT 16:39 UK

Drug smuggler ordered to pay £1m

A jailed cocaine smuggler has been ordered to hand over more than £1m of criminal assets or face an extra six years in prison.

Clifton Rochester was jailed for 14 years in 2005 for heading a drugs operation worth tens of millions.

He has now been given two years to hand over his remaining profits, with his future finances under surveillance.

The order, pursued by the Serious Organised Crime Agency, relies upon powers to recover assets from convicts.

Rochester, 37, of London, admitted conspiracy to import and supply cocaine, deception and money laundering offences at Bristol Crown Court in December 2005.

His conviction came after a massive three-year investigation by the National Crime Squad, now succeeded by Soca.

Rochester and his gang smuggled an estimated £47m of cocaine from Jamaica to the UK, using air hostesses as couriers.

One of the couriers included a former Miss Jamaica contestant who hid packages of cocaine in a customised body-stocking.

Lavish lifestyle

At his conviction hearing, the court heard that Rochester had made "obscene profits" from drug smuggling and used the cash to finance a lifestyle of expensive cars, executive travel, property and fee-paying schools.

Soca officers believe Rochester personally made £4.7m - but most of it was spent on his family and lifestyle.

This week Bristol Crown Court gave Rochester two years to hand over £1,000,003 - or face up to six and a half years more in prison.

The unusual sum was set to ensure Rochester would face a tougher penalty if he fails to pay up than he would for a recovery of less than £1m.

The BBC understands the £1m estimated to be remaining is thought to be hidden in overseas property investments, possibly in the Caribbean.

In addition, the court made a 15-year financial reporting order, the longest available in his case. This order means that Rochester's finances must be available for full scrutiny.

Before his conviction, Rochester's wife Latoya Grosse was jailed for three-and-a-half years after admitting money laundering and deception offences.

Other members of his gang have also been jailed for between five and six years.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency was launched in 2006. Its strategy is to bring down the entire business, such as a drug smuggling market, by finding ways of making it impossible for organised crime bosses to run an effective business.

Asset recovery orders are a way of pursuing criminal profits after someone has been convicted. Soca has made asset recovery from jailed serious organised rime figures one of its key targets. The Assets Recovery Agency is soon to become part of Soca.