Class A (6 page)
Authors: Robert Muchamore
‘Cool,’ James grinned. ‘Another two weeks of that workload was gonna send me under. What lessons have I been dropped from?’
‘Art, Russian, religion and history,’ Kyle said.
‘Superb,’ James said, deliriously drumming his hands on his desktop. Then the penny dropped. ‘Did you say
history
?’
‘Uh-huh,’ Kyle nodded.
‘I just paid you five quid for a history essay.’
‘A good price for a good essay.’
James leapt furiously out of his chair. ‘I don’t care if it’s written on gold parchment by that bloke who does the history shows on Channel Four,’ he spluttered. ‘I don’t need the essay if I don’t have to go back to history class.’
‘It goes to prove the old saying,’ Kyle giggled.
‘What saying?’
‘Cheats never prosper.’
‘I tell you who’ll never prosper,’ James stormed, grabbing one of the pens off his carpet. ‘You. And you know why? Because you’re gonna have an extremely hard time prospering after I’ve rammed this biro up your nose. Give us my fiver back.’
‘What fiver?’ Kyle asked. ‘I don’t recall any fiver. Did you get a receipt?’
James gave Kyle a shove.
‘You’re a bandit, Kyle. Normal people don’t go around conning their mates.’
Kyle backed up, with a giant grin and his hands out in front of himself.
‘I tell you what,’ he said, ‘I’m seriously short of cash. So, even though it goes against my sacred ethical code, I’ll do you a deal.’
‘What deal?’
‘If you let me keep the fiver, I’ll get Nicole on to the mission.’
‘That’s worth five quid,’ James smiled. ‘What’s this mission about anyway?’
‘Drugs,’ Kyle said.
6. BRIEF
**CLASSIFIED**
MISSION BRIEFING:
FOR JAMES ADAMS, KYLE BLUEMAN,
KERRY CHANG AND NICOLE EDDISON
DO NOT REMOVE FROM ROOM 812
DO NOT COPY OR MAKE NOTES
C
HILDREN
IN
THE
D
RUG
B
USINESS
Children are used by drug dealers throughout the world, to sell, smuggle and deliver illegal drugs. There are a number of reasons why children are used:
(1) Kids selling or using drugs are usually viewed as victims rather than criminals. In most countries, children are punished lightly for drug offences, whereas an adult caught with a large quantity of a drug like heroin or cocaine faces five to ten years in prison.
(2) Children have access to schools and young people. Drug dealers encourage children to give free samples of drugs to their friends. Someone who starts dealing drugs at twelve or thirteen can have hundreds of customers by the time they reach adulthood.
(3) Children have few sources of income and plenty of spare time. Many will do a drug dealer a favour, such as making a delivery for just a few pounds, or even for nothing because they think it makes them look cool.
W
HAT
IS
C
OCAINE
?
Cocaine is an illegal drug extracted from the leaves of the coca plant (not to be confused with the cocoa plant, which is used to make chocolate). Coca grows at high altitude in the mountainous regions of South America. The leaves are refined into a crystalline white powder. Before reaching users, the powder is diluted with cheaper substances, such as lactose or borax, or it is mixed with other drugs such as methamphetamine (commonly called speed).
The powder is snorted up the nose. It can also be injected, or mixed with other chemicals to form a
smokable
version of the drug called crack. Users of cocaine feel a sense of confidence and well being that lasts fifteen to thirty minutes. Cocaine also causes numbness and was once used as an anaesthetic by surgeons and dentists. More effective anaesthetics are now available.
While cocaine doesn’t create a physical craving of the kind you get with heroin or cigarettes, many users enjoy the drug’s effects so much that they use it to excess and do enormous damage to their bodies. Whereas a heroin or cigarette addict needs a regular fix, cocaine users often go days without using before going on a binge. Serious side effects of cocaine include heart attacks, liver failure, brain seizures, strokes and damage to the lining of the nose and mouth.
C
OCAINE
IN
B
RITAIN
Cocaine was once the champagne of the drug world: a luxury only the rich could afford. A moderate user might get through a gram of powdered cocaine in an evening. In 1984, a gram of cocaine cost £200–£250. Twenty years later, the street price of cocaine has dropped to less than £50 a gram. In some areas of Britain, a gram of low quality cocaine can cost as little as £25.
The United States pays South American governments to hunt and destroy coca plants in the highlands where they grow. Despite this, the street price of cocaine has continued to drop, suggesting that supplies are still plentiful.
Most cocaine brought into Britain arrives via the Caribbean. There are thousands of smugglers in British prisons. Tough sentences have done little to stop the trade. Cocaine dealers continue to find people willing to act as drug couriers, often in return for less than a thousand pounds and an airline ticket.
It is impossible to catch every smuggler entering Britain. The police must aim higher and capture the people in control of the drug gangs. Close to one third of the cocaine entering Britain passes through an organisation commonly referred to as KMG. The initials stand for Keith Moore’s Gang.
K
EITH
M
OORE
AND
KMG
:
B
IOGRAPHY
1964 | Keith Moore was born on the newly built Thornton. estate on the outskirts of Luton in Bedfordshire. |
1977 | After being caught selling cannabis in his school library, Keith was arrested by police and excluded from school. He became a chronic truant, suspected of many car thefts and burglaries. |
1978 | Keith began training as a boxer at the JT Martin Youth Centre. JT Martin was a retired boxer and armed robber who controlled the underworld in Bedfordshire from the early 1960s until 1985. JT used his boxing club as a recruiting ground for young criminals. |
1980 | Keith was spotted in police surveillance photographs of JT Martin. In the pictures, Keith is a slightly built sixteen-year-old who looks out of place amongst JT’s crew of boxers and nightclub bouncers. |
1981 | Keith became JT Martin’s chauffeur when a previous driver was banned for speeding. Moving around with JT gave the seventeen-year-old an insight into all aspects of the drug business. |
1983 | After eleven amateur fights, with a record of one win, two draws and eight defeats, Keith retired from boxing. Shortly afterwards, he married Julie Robertson, a girl he had known since infant school. |
1985 | Police captured JT Martin and a number of associates selling drugs. JT was sentenced to twelve years in prison. Keith Moore had been JT’s driver for four years, but the rest of JT’s crew regarded him as a wimpish hanger-on. |
1986 | With JT in prison, a power struggle erupted amongst his former employees. Keith kept away from the violent struggles and developed an interest in JT’s cocaine business. Cocaine was a tiny proportion of the criminal empire, which made most of its money selling heroin and cannabis. JT also owned nightclubs, pubs and casinos, as well as dozens of small businesses such as laundrettes and hairdressing salons. |
1987 | The price of cocaine kept falling and supply was growing. Keith Moore was one of the first people in Britain torealise that the cocaine business was about to explode. |
1988 | The cocaine business was earning Keith over £10,000 per week. This cash enabled him – at just 23 years of age – to take effective control of JT Martin’s criminal empire. Keith avoided violence whenever possible. He manipulated jealous rivals, setting them against one another. When manipulation failed, he bought rivals off by handing them parts of the business that did not interest him. |
1989 | Keith’s first son, Ringo, was born (now aged 15). |
1990 | Keith’s business grew tenfold in three years. Cocaine delivery expanded into Hertfordshire and London. He also began selling wholesale quantities of cocaine to other dealers all over Britain and mainland Europe. |
1992 | Julie Moore gave birth to twins, April and Keith Jr (now aged 12). |
1993 | Keith’s youngest child, Erin, was born (now aged 11). |
1998 | Drug dealing is often a short career. Anyone who is successful attracts attention from police and customs. They usually end up behind bars. After investigations failed to gather enough evidence, police tried to get undercover officers into Keith’s inner circle. Dozens of people working for KMG have been prosecuted. Even when they have agreed to cooperate, police have never been able to produce clear evidence linking Keith Moore with his drug business. At the core of KMG, an expensive legal team and fiercely loyal deputies have so far succeeded in keeping Keith Moore out of prison. |
2000 | As the cocaine business continued to thrive, Keith Moore’s personal fortune was estimated at £25 million. After being arrested for non-payment of tax, he pleaded guilty to a minor charge and paid a £50,000 fine. |
2001 | Julie Moore left Keith after eighteen years of marriage. Keith kept custody of the children and the family home. Julie moved into a house across the street and remains on good terms with her ex-husband. |
2003 | Police launched Operation Snort, the largest taskforce of drugs officers ever assembled in Britain. The official aim was to stop the cocaine business. Unofficially, everyone knew Operation Snort was gunning for Keith Moore and KMG. |
2004 | (Present Day) Despite a personal fortune now estimated at between £35 and £50 million, Keith Moore has shunned the trappings of the super rich. He lives with his four children in a large detached house less than twenty minutes’ drive from the housing estate where he was born. His four children attend the local comprehensive school. He works from an office at home and socialises with family members and friends he has known since boyhood. His only extravagances are a collection of Porsche sports cars and a beachfront house in Miami, Florida. |