Sussex money launderer supplied cutting agent materials used to create cocaine worth £20m

Sussex Police said James Beeby – of Hammy Lane, Shoreham-by-Sea – was previously convicted after a trial for being concerned in the supply of a class A drug – ‘namely cocaine, and money laundering’.

“In January 2022 the 53-year-old was sentenced to six-and-a-half-years in prison for the offences,” a police spokesperson said.

"But the inquiry into his illegal activity did not stop there, because a financial investigator from the Surrey and Sussex Economic Crime Unit was part of the investigation team and led an investigation into his finances.”

Under the Proceeds of Crime Act, assets were seized by officers, which included a Rolex watch he was wearing at the time of his arrest, police said.

At Hove Crown Court on September 19, it was revealed Beeby had benefitted to the sum of more than £130,000 during the investigation period, police said.

A spokesperson added: “The court imposed a confiscation order for the £130,000, and was told that more than £40,000 was available to be seized from the drug supplier directly. It included cash and the Rolex watch.

“Beeby was investigated originally after Border Force officers intercepted eight packages which had been sent from China to two addresses in Sussex connected to Beeby.

“The packages contained ‘cutting agents’ used to create cocaine, which included benzocaine, boric acid and phenacetin.”

Police said an investigation found Beeby had imported 1,370 kilograms of the cutting agent, ‘at an estimate resale value of £275,000’.

“This amount of cutting agent had the potential, when cut with cocaine, to produce drugs with a street value of up to £20 million,” the spokesperson added.

"Beeby tried to portray himself as a legitimate businessman, selling chemicals for various uses.

“But his website offered assurances of discretion, and the vast quantities of cutting agent made any legitimate use extremely unlikely.”

The drugs offender had supplied the cutting agent to clients in the UK, the United States, and Canada, police said.

Phone messages showed how he ‘knew of the intended use’ of the cutting agent for use in the supply of cocaine.

Beeby also admitted two counts of possession of a weapon during the course of the original investigation between August 2017 and December 2018, police said.

That was after police ‘recovered a stun gun and pepper spray’ during the inquiry.

Following the latest hearing, Detective Inspector Charley Bryant, from the Economic Crime Unit, said: “Our colleagues worked hard to ensure the successful conviction of Beeby for being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.

"We are determined to disrupt the supply of drugs which cause so much harm in our communities however our investigation did not stop at the point of conviction.

"We demonstrated how we are determined to pursue every avenue available to us to not only catch criminals involved in drugs and money laundering offences, but to also deny them the benefits of their criminality.”