Drug traffickers nabbed after sending photo of pet French Bulldog ordered to pay $1.4 million

Drug traffickers whose entire organized crime ring was brought down by a photo of a French Bulldog were ordered to fork over more than $1.4 million, the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency said. 

Stefan Baldauf, 64, and Philip Lawson 63, were drug traffickers nabbed in 2020 as part of Operation Venetic along with other members of their group for smuggling drugs from the United Kingdom to Australia. The traffickers sent 448kg of amphetamine worth about $46 million in an arm of an excavator down under.

The traffickers even rigged an auction to make sure the amphetamine went into the right hands. The drugs, which investigators said was MDMA, was first stored in the heavy equipment in an industrial unit in Grays, Essex, before being shipped to Australia. It took almost three months to arrive in Brisbane, the National Crime Agency said.

The ruse, however, fell apart when fellow trafficker Danny Brown sent a photo of his French Bulldog, Bob, to Baldauf.

Investigators were able to use the photo — which had his partner’s phone number on its tag — and other methods to find and crack down on the organized criminal group.

“These criminals did not care about the misery and exploitation that the supply of illegal drugs bring to UK and Australian communities,” said Chris Hill, who led the NCA investigation.

Baldauf, Brown, Lawson and four other men in the UK were sentenced for a combination of 163 years, the National Crime Agency said. The other members will face a confiscation hearing later this year.