Drugs gang facing jail terms of 110 years

A three-year investigation by Spanish, French, British and South American police forces will come to an end with the trial of a drugs gang accused of moving more than 200 kilos of cocaine into Spain.

At the head of the gang was Brian Colin Charrington, according to the prosecution, who was arrested at a property in Alicante Province in July of 2013.

Spanish police say Charrington, a former car dealer from Middlesbrough, was one of European police’s ‘10 most investigated criminals.’

In a trial following an earlier arrest in 1992, he was revealed to have been an informant working for the North-East Regional Crime Squad.

Charrington subsequently moved to Spain where he is accused of building up a drugs smuggling network that was only ended when police finally surrounded his property in the town of Altea and arrested him.

Besides other alleged members of the network, Charrington is also accused alongside his son and partner.

The prosecution claim members of the gang travelled to Venezuela and Colombia in 2012 to acquire cocaine. They are said to have returned via Brazil and Argentina before re-entering Spain with the drugs. 

Police have said they seized luxury vehicles, Rolex watches and even boats at the various properties used by the gang. 

The offences range from money laundering to membership of a criminal organisation with the prosecution calling for fines of more than €80 million and jail terms totalling more than 110 years.

It has been widely reported in the past Charrington liked to fill in his Wikipedia entry, boasting about his criminal exploits.