An international drug dealer who was extradited from Ireland to face charges he imported almost £110 million (€128 million) worth of cocaine and cannabis into the UK has been jailed for 18 years.
Philip Baron (58), was the kingpin in an international cartel which smuggled cocaine from South America to Spain and then to the UK.
He imported two shipments of cocaine totalling 60kg, which had an estimated street value of £19.2 million (€22.4 million), a sentencing hearing at Liverpool Crown Court was told.
Baron, who masqueraded as a legitimate businessman, also ran a sophisticated cannabis smuggling operation.
Baron, a former HGV driver from Salford, who was living near the five-star golf resort the K Club in Straffan, Co Kildare, had fought extradition to the UK in the Irish courts for two years. He was extradited in November 2012.
Passing sentence, Judge David Aubrey QC said Baron, along with other members of his operation, sold the drugs on a “commercial scale” so “you could lead the life you did”.
Sentencing Baron to 18 years in prison the judge said: “It was driven by avarice and greed.”
“It was a trade and an empire and you cared not for the lives of others. You may have destroyed lives. It may have led people to commit crime. It may have led to despair and desperation. None of that concerned you. You were only concerned with yourself and leading a lavish lifestyle,” he said.
Baron was a leading figure in an international ring who owned yachts and sports cars as well as luxury villas in Spain, all funded by drug money.
He admitted three counts including conspiracy to import cocaine between March and November 2008, conspiracy to import cannabis between September 2005 and September 2009, and money laundering.
Yesterday the court heard how Baron was nicknamed “Butlin”. William Baker, opening the case for the prosecution, told the court that a recording device had been placed in the home of the defendant’s daughter, Rachel Baron.
Mr Baker said the device “recorded her saying her father was called Butlin because he had likened a Spanish prison he had been in to a holiday camp”. It is understood that Baron spent time in a prison in Malaga, Spain, on drug related charges. Rachel
Baron was jailed for three years at an earlier hearing for picking up and distributing cash on her father’s behalf, the court heard.
Baron was “one of the organisers of a highly sophisticated criminal enterprise that imported drugs to the UK”, the court was told.