James Mulvey is an
illicit drug smuggler originally from
Solihull
Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...
.
Smuggling operation
The gang smuggled illicit drugs inside hollow industrial rollers on truck from
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, through
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
to the
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...
.
[ The investigation began when a Belgian warehouse worker noticed that the same rollers kept returning to the depot.][ Once the connection to England was found, Belgian police notified their counterparts there.][ In 2007 rollers were seized by Gardaí seized the rollers on an industrial estate in ]Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
.[ Several people were arrested and jailed but Mulvey moved to Spain shortly before arrests.][
]
On the run
To evade law enforcement, James Mulvey rarely stayed in the same place for long.[ He used hotels for several years, paid in cash and used ]burner phones
A prepaid mobile device, also known as a, pay-as-you-go (PAYG), pay-as-you-talk, pay and go, go-phone, prepay or burner phone, is a mobile device such as a phone for which credit is purchased in advance of service use. The purchased credit is ...
.[ He also didn't use bank accounts.][
In 2012 his father fell ill and Mulvey returned to the UK.][
]
Arrest
He was arrested in Kaunas in 2017 by Lithuanian special forces after being tracked there by the National Crime Agency.[
During his trial evidence from nine countries and two ex-girlfriends were offered in evidence.][
In June 2018 he was jailed for his part in an attempt to smuggle £68 million of cocaine and cannabis into the UK between 2006 and 2007.][
He was jailed for 32 years.][
]
Family
His cousin Gerard "Hatchet" Kavanagh was also one of his business partners.[
]
References
{{Reflist
People from Solihull
20th-century English criminals
21st-century English criminals
English people convicted of drug offences