THEY run their drug operations with ruthless precision – living lives of luxury off the misery of others.
But these are no ordinary drug dealers.
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Female drug pushers are on the rise globally and Britain’s vile line-up is flooding the country with heroin, cocaine and dangerous party drugs.
They live the high-life, with exotic holidays, fast cars and killer wardrobes as they shun men to build their own criminal networks.
One glamorous female gang even dressed as moped couriers with pink backpacks to deliver a “candy shop” list of 90 drugs around London.
There’s also a rise in the numbers of women willing to risk life in some of the world’s toughest jails through trafficking.
UK charity Prisoners Abroad has seen 243 Brits arrested on drugs offences in the year up to March compared to 155 the previous year. Women make up 62 per cent of new cases.
Leading criminologist Alex Iszatt says queenpins tend to be less violent than male drug lords – but can be just as cold-blooded.
She told The Sun: “They don’t have to be as abhorrent or as violent as men.
“Power for men is often seen through violent action but for women it’s organised, it’s clever, it’s manipulative, it’s slowly building things up.
“Women have the ability to multi-task so these women can easily launder money, run logistics and manage finances.
“They don’t have to go to the street and hit a few people, like men might, so they have the ability to be hidden and are able to rise to power. They show a different type of ruthlessness.”
Among the most infamous queenpins in Britain are sisters Shazia and Abia Din who ran a multi-million pound drugs ring from their beauty salon.
The pair ran a business called The Beauty Booth in Bury, Greater Manchester, as a front while they peddled heroin, cocaine and amphetamines to contacts across South Yorkshire.
Their illegal network was busted when cops seized more than 60 kilos of heroin and cocaine and £300,000 in cash.
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Shazia, 47, was jailed for 15 years and Abia, 50, for 18 years in 2020 after admitting conspiracy to supply drugs.
A mugshot image of one of the county’s most glam drug dealers went viral in December last year.
Kirsty Sansum became the female version of America’s ‘hot felon’ Jeremy Meeks – who went on to have a son with Topshop heiress Chloe Green – after she was arrested with three kilograms of coke.
Sansum, 30, and boyfriend John Rogers, 29, both of Stroud, Gloucestershire were caught with £300,000 worth of drugs stashed in their car at services on the M5.
Internet users swooned over Sansum, who admitted conspiracy to supply coke but escaped jail after being given a two-year suspended sentence and a drug rehabilitation order.
Loved-up Katie Barrington and Trenae Greenland made almost £300,000 dealing cocaine and blew the cash on foreign holidays and designer clothes.
Barrington, 30, and Greenland, 31, earned £60,000 between them but boosted their income by making up to £100 a weekday and £200 on the weekend selling drugs.
They were jailed for two years and eight months in 2022 after cops found three bags of white powder hidden in their car.
Pink courier gang
While most female dealers operate behind the scenes, there are others willing to take massive risks.
A gang of pretty Brazilian nationals dressed as moped couriers with pink backpacks to sell drugs in a Deliveroo-style network which operated all over London.
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They communicated with customers over the messaging service Signal and even sold a signature heart-shaped Ecstasy pills which they pressed themselves.
They got so rich from their ill-gotten gains – raking in £1.35m – that they gave themselves Sundays off.
The women operated alongside kingpin Tiago Thomaz De-Lima, who was jailed for 18 years in 2021.
The five women, aged between 25 and 33, were given a total of 37-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to drugs offences.
De-Lima, 35, was given 18 years while Vanessa Ananias, 34, was jailed for six years and Andressa Santos, 29, was caged for four-and-a-half years alongside Nayara Robeiro, 37.
All over the world, experts are tracking the terrifying rise of female mobsters including the likes of Mexican La China – real name Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda – who killed 180 people over a decade before she was arrested, aged 31, in 2015.
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In March this year, the law finally caught up with Polish gangster Magdalena Kralka, 30, who turned to a life of drug trafficking and money laundering after her gang leader boyfriend was shot dead by cops.
She went on the run for six years before being caught in Slovakia and caged for three and a half years.
There are very few statistics on Godmothers but the most recent study by security analysis organisation, International Crisis Group, shows that the number of women involved in organised crime grew from 5.4 per cent in 2017 to 7.5 per cent in 2021.
Many risk being imprisoned abroad by smuggling drugs into Britain to fund their lavish lives.
Fake ‘shopping trip’
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In April, Sophie Bannister and Levi-April Whalley avoided jail after being caught smuggling more than £160,000 worth of drugs through Birmingham airport in 2023.
The 30-year-olds tried to tell Border Force staff they were coming back from a big shopping trip in New York, but officials found 34 heat-sealed packages containing 16.5kg of cannabis in Bannister’s case and 19kg of cannabis in Whalley’s bag.
The friends, from Blackburn, Lancashire, sobbed in the dock after being given suspended sentences.
They later started posting scantily-clad images on their social media and OnlyFans “for a bit of fun” and to “help make ends meet”.
Crime expert Alex Iszatt says many women who come involved in drug crimes – especially Godmothers – often come from established crime families.
She said: “In some cases there is a familial aspect in which the woman takes control. She’s not necessarily the face of the operation but is definitely behind the scenes.
“When it comes to family dynasties there’s a very different psychological aspect. The women think they are doing what they are doing for their children, providing for them, protecting their futures.”
INFAMOUS GODMOTHER
One of the most famous female gangsters of all time is Griselda Blanco.
Nicknamed the Cocaine Godmother, she was the face behind a £1.5billion drugs empire.
Proudly labelling herself the “baddest bitch to ever take a breath of life”, Griselda was responsible for 250 contract killings in a bloody reign of terror across Miami, the youngest victim just two years old.
She was behind the deaths of her three husbands and was not afraid to get her hands dirty either, shooting rivals in the face.
One associate said: “She ordered death the way other people order pizza.”
Griselda was played by Modern Family actress Sophia Vergara in a Netflix series last year.
Alex warned that women drug dealers are more likely to get tougher sentences than men.
She said: “They sometimes get harsher sentences because they don’t fit the societal mould.
“Stereotypically, people expect men to be violent and be brutal behind the scenes. A woman doesn’t need to tick all these boxes to be in control, but that’s not what society wants to see in females, so they are often judged more harshly.”
