Claire Wilson
A CANTERBURY couple that hid out in Spain to avoid a jail sentence has been locked up.
The pair fled the UK after a police investigation smashed their multi-million euro cannabis production empire.
Darren and Debra Wright, 47 and 48, were described as the main ring-leaders in the drugs production network unearthed by officers from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate.
They went on the run in Spain in 2012, where they own property. They were finally tracked down by Spanish police earlier this summer, and were extradited.
They were sentenced to five years and eight months, and three years respectively at Maidstone Magistrates Court.
what a waste of time, money and resources. For a weed that grows anywhere. for a product less harmful than cigarettes and alcohol.
Isnt it about time we used real science for policy, instead of medieval fear mongering.
Prohibition has never worked.
How nice for them if they’re now comforted in a British jail (paid for by the British government) instead of a Spanish one that may not be quite so nice. I know it’s not PC but for my money I’d rather see such offenders not only do hard labour but also have their assets confiscated & the proceeds put towards the costs of detaining them.
It was only proibited in the first place because William Randolph Hearst and his mates wanted their cotton and softwood to replace hemp. They were a powerful group, in givernment and owning newspapers; the marijuana farmers were poor and had tiny farms of a few acres. First the tax on MJ was raised and raised till it was over 90%, then the Reefer Madness message was invented to drive the message home. (That’s a résumé of what should take several pages!)Now it’s being kept illegal mainly because it’d be such a rival to pharmaceuticals. The horror suffered all over the world because of drug prohibition is just one of the multiple abuses of our time.
Of course, Bayer invented heroin, which was promoted as the non-addictive substitute for morphine; they named it heroin because it made people feel great, heroic.
I agree with David – criminals breaking the Law in Spain should be held in Spanish prisons… NOT in UK paid by UK taxpayers. At some 100,000 GBP/Perp/Yr it’s an insult to UK Taxpayers. You can’t do the TIME, don’t do the crime!
If ONLY the UK “politicians” from Eton had some cahones.