Man who sold drugs to male escorts, Laional Pablo Fonseca, jailed for four years
Published: 10 June, 2010
by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
THE final man to be sentenced following an undercover drugs operation that began in 2008 and lasted more than a year was jailed for four and a half years this week.
Brazilian national Laional Pablo Fonseca, 23, who sold drugs to his male escort clientele, was the last man to be brought before Blackfriars Crown Court following an operation that saw 11 men jailed for more than 60 years.
Ten others, including a restaurant owner and a British Airways cabin crew steward who smuggled drugs aboard commercial flights from South Africa, were sentenced earlier this year for their part in a major drug-dealing ring that targeted Camden’s gay community.
Operation Niobe began in November 2008 after Camden’s Crime Squad and the Borough Intelligence Unit raided a Covent Garden flat in Monmouth Street which was being used as a drug dealing base with far-reaching links.
Following a surveillance operation, more than £20,000 worth of class A drugs, mainly crystal meth and cocaine, were seized, along with £50,000 in cash.
Detectives are currently investigating whether the gang made more than half a million pounds from their crimes.
Fonseca, who will be deported back to Brazil on licence after serving two and a half years in jail, would buy crystal meth and other class A drugs from Monmouth Street and sell it on at a higher price to his clients.
Investigators have launched confiscation proceedings to retrieve £250,000 in his Brazilian bank accounts.
Sentencing him, His Honour Judge Daniel Worsley, said: “It was quite a sophisticated operation with a potential for a great deal of harm from these awful drugs.”