A gangster granny who ran a £80million drug empire with her family transporting cocaine around the UK was jailed for 20 years yesterday.
Deborah Mason, 65, revelled in her status as a cocaine kingpin, instructing her own family, whom she recruited as drug runners, to call her ‘Gangster Debbs’ and ‘Queen Bee’.
The 65-year-old recruited her sister, four of her children, their partners and friends to ferry around a metric tonne of cocaine worth £80million from ports such as Harwich to make deliveries in Bristol, Cardiff, London, Leicester, Birmingham, Rotherham, Sheffield and Bradford, paying relatives £1,000 a trip.
Yesterday the 10-strong family gang from Islington, North London were jailed for more than 100 years at Woolwich Crown Court.
Prosecutor Charlotte Hole told the court that in many of the drug runs between April and November 2023, Mason brought her grandchildren as young as two who sat in a child’s car seat amongst cardboard boxes stuffed with 5kg blocks of cocaine.
With the profits of her drug empire, the mother-of-seven splashed out on lavish holidays to Dubai and Bahrain, designer clothing, handbags and a £400 Gucci cat collar and lead with 9ct gold engraved name tag for her beloved Bengal cat called Ghost.
The grandmother, who was claiming over £50,000 a year in benefits, planned to make £90,000 in profits by the end of the year which she intended to pay for plastic surgery in Turkey.
Deborah Mason, 65 (pictured), revelled in her status as a cocaine kingpin, instructing her own family, whom she recruited as drug runners, to call her ‘Gangster Debbs’ and ‘Queen Bee’
Mason is arrested prompting an extensive investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service
The 65-year-old bought a £400 Gucci cat collar and lead with 9ct gold engraved name tag for her beloved Bengal cat called Ghost
But when detectives raided Mason’s £1.5milliion terraced home in Islington, they found the self-proclaimed gangster gran not in her designer clothing, but sitting in her nightie in stunned silence on the toilet.
The court heart that such was Mason’s greed, she kept a share of her family’s ‘wages’ and even enlisted her drug-addicted son Reggie who had suffered a brain injury as a result of a cocaine overdose.
Mason made at least 20 drug deliveries, with officers following her from her Tufnell Park home to pick up shipments from Harwich Port at 6am before the cocaine blocks were divided amongst supermarket bags for life and sent to her offspring.
When police raided her children’s homes, they found bags of drugs hidden in designer Chloe bags and bundles of cash.
But some of the gang members claimed that the trips were just random day trips chosen by their toddlers playing with the sat nav.
Following an 11-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court, the gang were convicted of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs in April.
Judge Philip Shorrock said Mason played a ‘leading role’ in the distribution of a tonne of cocaine across the UK, telling her: ‘As a mother you should have been setting an example to your children, not corrupting them.’
Demi Bright is arrested by Met Police officers for her role in the family-run organised crime group
The youngest daughter Lillie Bright is arrested by the Met Police for her role in the organised crime group
‘Deborah Mason recruited them (her relatives) to establish an extraordinarily profitable criminal enterprise that would ultimately put them all behind bars’, the prosecutor said
Pictured are Demi Kendall and Tina Golding who were jailed for 13-and-a-half years and 10 years respectively
Lillie Bright and Demi Bright were sentenced to 13 and 11 years in jail respectively
Reggie Bright and Anita Slaughter received 15 and 13 years respectively
Roseanne Mason, 29, was sentenced to 11 years in jail
The gang were sentenced to a combined 106 years and six months’ imprisonment.
Mason was jailed for 20 years, her daughters Roseanne Mason, 29, and Demi Bright, 30, received 11 years, while her youngest daughter Lillie Bright, 26, was sentenced to 13 years.
Mason’s son Reggie Bright, 24, was sentenced to 15 years, his partner Demi Kendall, 31, received a 13-and-a-half year sentence and a family friend Anita Slaughter, 44 also received 13 years.
Mason’s elder sister Tina Golding, 66, was also jailed for 10 years.
Met Detective Constable Jack Kraushaar said: ‘This was a sophisticated operation which was extremely profitable for those involved.
‘Following months of work by the Met Police to relentlessly pursue these perpetrators, we were able to arrest and eventually convict them, preventing more drugs flooding streets across the UK which leads to violence, antisocial behaviour and misery for communities.
‘The group were sucked into criminality, selfishly attracted by the financial benefits of the drug-dealing to fund lavish lifestyles.
‘They were unaware we were coming for them and this sentencing should act as a deterrent to those who think about committing this type of crime.’
Met Detective Constable Jack Kraushaar said: ‘This was a sophisticated operation which was extremely profitable for those involved’
Some of the gang members claimed that the trips were just random day trips chosen by their toddlers playing with the sat nav
Pictured: The expensive collar Mason ordered for her beloved cat
Pictured: A small pet leash worth £205 Mason ordered for her beloved cat
‘The group were sucked into criminality, selfishly attracted by the financial benefits of the drug-dealing to fund lavish lifestyles’, the Met said
Robert Hutchinson, Specialist Prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘This was no ordinary family. Instead of nurturing and caring for her relatives, Deborah Mason recruited them to establish an extraordinarily profitable criminal enterprise that would ultimately put them all behind bars.
‘The CPS worked closely with the police from the earliest opportunity to make sure we had ample evidence to prosecute them for the full extent of their actions.
‘We reviewed thousands of messages and other digital evidence that not only revealed incriminating messages sent between them, but also a significant pattern of deleting messages, helping to prove that they all knew exactly what they were doing.’
