British life-style: ‘Gangster granny’ jailed for leading family gang dealing drugs worth £80m

Deborah Mason
Photo: PA

Deborah Mason, 65, who had moniker ‘Queen Bee’, and seven members of her network sentenced to total of 106.5 years, ‘The Guardian’ writes.

A family-run organised crime group, orchestrated by a 65-year-old described by police as a “gangster granny”, has been sentenced for dealing drugs with a street value of £80m across the UK.

Deborah Mason, who had the moniker “Queen Bee”, and seven other members of the gang, were sentenced at Woolwich crown court in London on Friday for their involvement in supplying nearly a tonne of cocaine over seven months.

A group of couriers collected packages of imported cocaine and drove them across London as well as Bradford, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff, between April and November 2023, the court heard.

The drugs had an estimated wholesale value of between £23m and £35m and a street value of £80m.

The ringleader spent her profits on designer goods and was looking to travel to Turkey to have cosmetic surgery, while young mothers who were part of the gang took their young children to pick-ups.

Mason, who directed other members of the gang and was in contact with an upstream supplier called Bugsy, was found guilty of conspiracy to supply class A drugs and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Earlier, prosecutor Charlotte Hole said: “Everyone involved had an expectation of significant financial advantage, at least £1,000 per trip, and it is one of the most significant parts of the motivation of the conspiracy.

“They all had an awareness of the scale of the operation.”

Hole added: “She [Mason] recruited both her family members – her sister and her children – as well as partners and friends of her children, to a network of at least 10 individuals.”

Mason did not use pressure or coercion to woo her family into the gang as they were “motivated by financial benefit”.

The court also heard she was in receipt of in excess of £50,000 a year in benefit income during the conspiracy period, while acting as ringleader and spending lavishly on luxuries.

When Mason was on holiday in Dubai, her daughter Roseanne Mason, who made seven trips delivering about 166kg of cocaine, stepped into the directing role, the court heard.

Acting on intelligence, Metropolitan police officers used investigative techniques including extensive call data and conventional surveillance to track Deborah Mason and her couriers’ movements. Most of the gang were arrested in May 2024.

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