Cocaine Confidential (20 page)

Some cynics claim this is just a case of boasting criminals having a dig at their old enemies by pretending they are all ‘bent'. But my research into this book shows that for the right price there
are
officials in the UK who can be bribed. Former police officer ‘HJ' sums it all up perfectly. I can't even say which force he served with or his rank because it would give away his identity. HJ received a prison sentence in the UK for providing ‘help' to some of the most powerful cocaine gangsters in Britain.

Tracking down ‘bent coppers' inside the deadly world of cocaine is even harder than meeting the gangsters themselves. Not surprisingly, most of these characters are extremely reluctant to break cover. HJ only agreed to meet me because I was known to a number of his associates, who vouched for me.

However, no book about the criminal underworld of cocaine would be complete without speaking to characters like HJ to understand the complex nature of the cocaine ‘business' and its immense power and influence. I'd also been told in advance that HJ was a down-to-earth, surprisingly open character prepared to talk about his ‘sins' and how, ironically, it was cocaine itself which had sent him down such a duplicitous path in the first place.

Our first meeting took place in a quiet pub near HJ's home in the Essex countryside. HJ had endured many years in prison as a ‘bent copper' – which surely would have made him the ultimate target for many inmates. Yet he insisted he did not have any problems while serving his sentence. Maybe some of the powerful cocaine barons who'd paid him for information in the first place made sure he was protected?

‘No. It was nothing to do with them that I was left alone in prison,' said HJ. ‘I'm just not the sort of person to rub people up the wrong way. I served my time and kept a low profile throughout and people seemed to respect me for it. Of course it wasn't easy but I survived it and actually in some ways I learned a lot when I was inside. Not enough police officers take the time to understand the “enemy”. If they
did, then maybe a lot more criminals would have a better impression of the police.'

But it was HJ's encounters with some of the UK's most powerful cocaine barons that interested me the most.
How did these criminals trace him in the first place?
I asked.

‘Oh, it was all very predictable, really,' answered HJ. ‘I was dealing with these sorts of criminals virtually the whole time as part of various long-standing investigations into drug gangsters. But the first time I got “tempted” was when I nicked a couple of guys who were part of a big coke gang and one of them mentioned that his boss needed some information.'

HJ continued: ‘That first time I just laughed it off because I'd heard about guys like this offering bribes to cops many times before but I never actually thought they'd be stupid enough to actually try it. I wasn't in the slightest bit bothered. Looking back on it, I brushed it off without a moment's thought.'

But, unknown to most of his colleagues at the time, HJ had himself developed a serious cocaine habit since busting another drugs gang some years earlier. He explained: ‘I'd gone undercover for a while and that involved having to snort coke in order to be accepted into a circle of criminals. Trouble is I liked the stuff too much! It made me feel confident and positive and, quite frankly, for a while I actually think it improved my skills as a detective!

‘But cocaine addiction creeps up on you when you are least expecting it. You can easily go home at night, stop
taking it until you're next out with the lads. But the trouble is that once you start taking it outside party hours, it develops into something you really rely on in order to get through the day at work. And that's what happened to me. I'd become a serious cokehead and it was impacting on every aspect of my life but back then I don't think I realised it. I was in complete denial about the damage I was doing to myself.

‘I'd even found a coke dealer to buy my stuff from. He didn't realise I was a copper. He was a decent bloke in many ways. Just doing a job like the rest of us, I guess. But I was starting to need more and more of it every day and soon it was costing me hundreds of pounds every week to maintain the habit. That's when I got “vulnerable”, as they call it in the Force.'

The other not insignificant problem was that HJ's modest police salary didn't pay enough to cover his cocaine habit, as well as supporting his wife and two young children. ‘It was causing no end of problems at home. I hadn't told my wife I was hooked on coke. She thought I was having an affair with someone at work and the atmosphere at home was awful. Our two little children obviously had no idea what was going on, but I was either high as a kite or in a bad temper from coke-comedown, so I wasn't exactly being a loving father, either.'

Desperate to feed his coke habit and equally desperate to feed his wife and family, HJ contacted a criminal who'd once offered him ‘good money' if he could help him with ‘a few favours' after meeting him during a police raid on the gangster's home in the Home Counties.

HJ recalled: ‘This guy was a big player in the cocaine trade and he liked to keep one step ahead of his friends and enemies. I knew what I was getting myself into but I was desperate to keep my family together. I felt I had no choice, even though it was all my fault in the first place.'

A meeting in the car park of a motorway service station followed. ‘This character had an appalling record for violence, including an attack on a policeman, but I was so deep in the hole by this time that I didn't really care. I just wanted money and I would do pretty much anything to get it.'

Within weeks, HJ had been ‘pulled in hook, line and sinker' by his new criminal paymaster. He explained: ‘It seemed like easy money at first. I'd trace a few car registrations then swap that info for an envelope with £500 in it. I actually convinced myself it wasn't harming anyone particularly. What an idiot I was.'

But gradually those ‘favours' began to stack up and the information required became more and more sensitive. ‘One time he wanted to know the details of a statement given against him by another criminal. I must have been mad to help him with that because it was obvious he would “sort out” the guy, who'd given evidence against him. I was effectively endangering this guy's life just for a few bob. I look back on what I did with disgust at myself. How could I have been so ruthless and coldhearted? I'm shocked by it even now. But I suppose it was the cocaine addiction driving me on all the time. I liked to have at least a gram on me at all times. It made me feel I was in control. How twisted up is that?'

The same ‘Mister Big' was also rumoured to have used firearms to ‘sort out' his enemies. ‘He was charming to me but I could see the killer in his eyes every time we met. But I ignored it and put on a chummy voice just to keep him happy. Looking back on it, he was probably the coldest person I've ever met and I knew my own life would be in danger if I ever crossed him.'

But the same ‘Mister Big' was so impressed with HJ's information that he began proudly recommending HJ's ‘services' to other powerful criminal faces in the south-east of England. ‘That's when the money really started flooding in,' said HJ.

‘A whole load of other gangsters started wanting me to get them info and they began paying me in thousands instead of hundreds for much more sensitive, inside stuff. I started blowing even more on coke, which made me more and more greedy for the money. I was turning into a physical wreck, hardly able to operate on a day-to-day basis. I was only sleeping a couple of hours each night because I was so high on cocaine. I was a complete mess.'

HJ believes the cocaine he was snorting was effectively helping him ‘totally ignore' the consequences of his actions. ‘I went into a state of cocaine-induced denial, I guess. I tried my hardest not to think about how the info was being used. It was pathetic really. I should have called a halt there and then but I needed the cash, which gave me the freedom to take as much coke as I wanted and provide for my family. For a while, it seemed like the perfect combination. But I knew it couldn't go on for ever.'

HJ claims that at one stage being known in the criminal fraternity as a ‘bent copper' helped him infiltrate some of the most powerful cocaine gangs. ‘I was a copper they could actually trust. They knew they had something over me so I wasn't likely to get them nicked, which was completely true. At one stage I had the ear of some of the most notorious gangsters in the Home Counties. Sometimes they even provided me with small tips about rival criminals whenever they wanted people removed from the drugs business. I actually had a higher arrest record than virtually all my colleagues at the time.'

For the following two years, HJ provided more and more inside information to cocaine gangs. He explained: ‘And like any drug addict, I didn't know how to stop. I should have recognised that the things I was being asked to do would eventually lead to me but I just stumbled along. I was checking bank accounts, phone records, police reports on known criminals. I accessed witness statements in big drug cases. It was crazy, irresponsible and highly dangerous. Many innocent people could have been harmed by this information leaking into the wrong hands.'

Then one of the UK's biggest cocaine criminals began using HJ's ‘services'. He explained: ‘I got a big payment of many thousands of pounds from this one gangster to find out some info about one of his rivals in the coke game. That information indirectly led to a shooting incident. No one was actually killed but the incident sparked a very thorough police investigation and that's when my activities were finally flagged up.'

HJ recalled: ‘Looking back at it, I probably would have died of cocaine poisoning if that hadn't have happened. I was taking four, sometimes even five grams of coke a day and trying to juggle my work as a detective with a young family, all of whom were sick of me coming home late at night drunk and coked out of my mind. In many ways, I was incredibly relieved when two officers came knocking on my door and said they knew what I'd been up to. I'd had enough of hiding everything from the people I love and from my colleagues. I needed help but up until that point I had been too scared to ask.'

Perhaps surprisingly, HJ claims that few of his colleagues criticised him after his double dealing corruption was exposed. ‘Sure, they were shocked. Look, I'd been a good copper with an excellent record even in the middle of taking bribes to provide criminals with info. Some officers I didn't know personally refused to even give me the time of day. But instead of slagging me off, my closest colleagues genuinely tried to help me sort out the mess I was in and I will always be grateful to them for that. They seemed to recognise what my cocaine addiction had done to me.'

HJ was immediately booked into a clinic to get him off cocaine and alcohol while detectives mounted an in-depth investigation into his criminal activities and connections to some of the country's most powerful cocaine trafficking gangs. ‘When they unravelled what I'd been up to, even I was surprised. Just like my coke addiction, I had let it creep
up on me. I just hadn't realised how many times I'd been bribed.'

Eventually, police investigators uncovered the full extent to which HJ had provided highly classified information to criminals. ‘I was shocked when I heard how many times I'd done it. It was completely out of control like my drug habit. The bribes had become a vital part of my income. I'd got so used to accepting an envelope crammed with notes that I'd started to consider it perfectly normal.'

HJ's biggest priority after his arrest was to protect his family. ‘They were completely innocent and had no idea what I'd been up to. I was very lucky my wife stuck by me. I didn't deserve it. But I'll never forget the shame I felt when I sat her down and told her everything that had happened. I'd let everyone down. I can't really ever forgive myself for doing that.'

But HJ's problems were not over yet; his gangster ‘customers' posed a real threat to his safety and that of his family. ‘Obviously, these criminals were worried I was going to name them, so I had to make a really hard choice: I could either spill the beans about who they were and get a lighter sentence or I could protect my family's safety and just serve the longer sentence, which I knew the judge would give me for failing to fully cooperate with my colleagues.'

Even HJ's former police workmates genuinely sympathised with his dilemma. ‘They all knew that my life and that of my family would be in danger if I provided the names of
those criminals who'd bribed me. I didn't want to protect them but I felt I had no choice.'

When HJ was given a ‘lengthy sentence' he took it philosophically. He explained: ‘It sounded a long time when I heard the sentence but I knew they had to make an example of me. If that helps put any other young coppers off accepting a bribe then at least something good has come out of all this.

‘My main priority was to serve my sentence and then get out and be with my family once again. I got what I deserved. I have no complaints about the way I was treated by the police. I had broken the golden rule in every sense of the word. But the way I look at it is that I am lucky to be alive. If I hadn't been busted as a bent copper, I might have ended dying from a cocaine overdose and then where would my family have been?'

HJ's insight into the UK's cocaine wars is unique: ‘I've met many of these characters. I have dealt with them first hand and I can tell you that none of the big players would hesitate to kill if someone got in their way. The only reason I survived is because I didn't squeal on them.'

Today, HJ lives a quiet, reserved life in Middle England. His children are grown up. He works occasionally as a gardener and his wife has a fulltime job. ‘She's stuck by me through thick and thin and proved beyond doubt that there is nothing more important in your life than your family.'