Bad month for budding benzocaine importers
16 January 2012
December 2011 was a bad month for benzocaine importers as two men who failed to provide any evidence of legitimate UK customers took a different knock in the courts within days of each other.
The men had both previously had consignments of benzocaine seized by SOCA in separate investigations. Benzocaine is the cutting agent of choice for many cocaine traffickers because it dilutes the drug without being too conspicuous, is cheap in comparison, and substantially increases criminals’ profit margins.
One of the men, David Wain, was sentenced in December 2010 to a 12 year prison sentence after using his online chemical supply business to sell 17 tonnes of cutting agent to drug traffickers. In a first for the English courts, he was ordered to reimburse SOCA almost £158,000 for the cost of storing the benzocaine it seized from him during its operation.
The other man, an unnamed 25 year old who had tried to import 250 kilos of benzocaine, went to court seeking permission to apply for a judicial review of SOCA’s action in seizing and destroying his consignment. The judge refused, and accepted SOCA’s argument that returning the benzocaine to him would have been tantamount to encouraging or assisting crime. He now has to pay £1700 to SOCA to cover barrister’s costs.
SOCA’s Deputy Director of Prevention, Martin Molloy, said:
“Importing benzocaine was once seen as a way to make an easy buck but it’s now more trouble than it’s worth. SOCA’s sustained intervention has hacked away at the benzocaine market, driving imports down and market prices up. Most importantly it has reduced the profits for Class A drug traffickers which would otherwise be reinvested in further crime.
"These two court results pile on the bad news for budding benzocaine importers. This isn’t a business you want to consider getting into.”
Wain’s reimbursement to SOCA will be paid out of a total confiscation order of £220,296 which he has 28 days to pay. If he fails, 2 years 4 months will be added to his prison sentence as a penalty, and he will still be liable to pay back the money.