Notorious criminal used garden shed in scheme to smuggle Spice into prisons via legal letters
Larry Barnett junior was described as the ’ringleader’ behind a lucrative operation to soak fake legal letters in the class B drug
A notorious criminal has been found guilty of a plot to smuggle spice into prisons throughout the country. Larry Barnett junior was described as the ’ringleader’ behind a lucrative operation to soak fake legal letters in the class B drug.
His father’s garden shed was used as a base for the the documents to be created, using the logo of Birmingham law firm Purcell Parker Solicitors, which had nothing to do with the criminal enterprise. Following a trial Barnett junior, aged 38, previously from Lichfield, was yesterday, September 18, found guilty of conspiracy to convey drugs into a prison.
After the verdict was announced prosecutor Robert Forrest told Birmingham Crown Court that the defendant had previously been jailed for 15 years in 2011 for conspiracy to rob and firearms offences. But more recently, he was sentenced to 21 years in February 2020 for being part of a gang who raided cash machines at convenience stories.
The defendant’s father Larry Barnett senior, 61 and his step-mother Andrea Simpkin, 53, both of Plowden Road, Stechford, were also involved in the drug-smuggling plot. Both admitted the same charge Barnett junior was found guilty of. Sentencing was adjourned until October 4.
Spice, also known as ’Mamba’, is a synthetic cannabinoid typically manufactured in laboratories outside of the UK but imported in illegally, either in powder or liquid form. It can be smoked on its own, with tobacco, placed in a vape of even consumed in a drink.
Mr Forrest, opening the case against Barnett junior earlier this month, said: "The versatility of synthetic cannabinoids means it can also be sprayed onto paper or soaked into paper. In-turn when the paper has been impregnated with that drug you can ingest that paper and still experience the effects of the drug."
"So for drug dealers up and down the country seeking to supply prisoners with drugs, you may think this drug maybe extremely appealing to them to simply spray it onto bits of paper then send those letters into prison. That’s the way drugs were being supplied into prisons in 2019. That’s what this case is all about."
"The prosecution say Larry Barnett junior was the ringleader of a group of people who all engaged in a common purpose of sending letters laced with the drug spice, into various prisons between March and December 2019."
The jury was told letters were marked up as ’legal correspondence’, which attracted a more stringent checking procedure at prisons. A total of 15 letters were intercepted in total. Even though spice could be obtained for a ’pretty cheap’ price of £10 for half a gram on the street, it was estimated a single sheet of A4 soaked in the drug could be worth as much as £300 inside a prison.
Barnet senior and Simpkin received around £50,000 worth of cash deposits in their bank accounts between March and December 2019, despite neither declaring any income with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Many of the transactions could be directly linked to serving prisoners or their relatives.
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