The Royal
  Gibraltar
  Police

RGP assist in major drugs operation

As a result of substantial evidence provided by the Royal Gibraltar Police to the Metropolitan Police Service in London concerning a money laundering investigation and conspiracy to supply 1 ton of Cannabis Resin, 62 year old Christopher Rowe was sentenced at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court to 8 years and 3 months imprisonment. Three other men in the organised crime group received similar sentences after pleading guilty to charges of money laundering and supply of Cannabis Resin.

Rowe also had assets, including cash, worth over £1,800,000 confiscated by the court after he was found to have benefited from criminal dealings in the sum of £8,000,000. Rowe had been linked to Gibraltar registered companies which he had set up to assist in laundering the proceeds of drug trafficking. The Metropolitan Police Service sought the assistance of the RGP in order to seek for evidence of this for the court case in UK.

Rowe and the other members of the gang were arrested on 28th March 2007 when Police raided several farmhouses where the drugs were being delivered to, with Rowe himself being found with £268,000 in cash and 9 mobile phones at his home in Surrey.

The confiscation figures represent on of the highest confiscations achieved by the Metropolitan Police Service and has been hailed a major triumph by investigators.