A convicted killer serving life imprisonment has devised an elaborate plan to help his criminal associates evade lengthy sentences for a £45 million MDMA smuggling operation.
William Todd, 61, who has spent 21 years behind bars serving two life sentences, orchestrated a plot from inside prison to assist drug smugglers Danny Brown, 58, Stefan Baldauf, 66, and four others in avoiding conviction.
The gang was caught attempting to smuggle 448kg of MDMA concealed inside the arm of an industrial digger destined for Australia. Brown and Baldauf received substantial prison terms of 26 and 28 years respectively in December 2022, following a thorough investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
During the June 2022 trial at Kingston Crown Court, allegations of jury tampering caused disruption. Rumours circulated that five jurors had been bribed to deliver guilty verdicts. The judge halted the trial to allow the NCA’s Anti-Corruption Unit to investigate. However, it was soon revealed that two jurors named in the allegations had been discharged months earlier, and the trial resumed, exposing the claims as unfounded.
Court CCTV footage showed an unidentified man entering during the jury swearing-in and leaving quickly. He was identified as Danny Thomas, 46, from Reading, who secretly recorded jurors’ names on orders from Todd.
After an initial failure to disrupt the trial, Todd and Thomas recruited Sheree Avard, 41, from Woking. Avard impersonated “Ioana Andrei” and contacted Brown’s lawyer, falsely claiming a juror had confessed to coercion. As their scheme began to unravel, they forged a fake passport and bribed a Romanian woman and a solicitor to support a fabricated statement.
Thomas was arrested at Heathrow Airport in November 2022 upon arrival from Dubai. Police discovered a phone containing incriminating calls, texts, and Todd’s secret contact saved as “Ari Gold,” a reference to a television character.
Both Thomas and Avard pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. At Southwark Crown Court, Thomas was sentenced to three years and four months in prison, while Avard received a one-year sentence. Todd, known for a daring prison escape in 2001, was convicted of the same offence and given an additional seven years behind bars.
Despite his incarceration, Todd’s criminal network within prison remains active, showing no signs of collapse in the near future.
Originally published by UKNIP.
