Inmate Masterminded Smuggling of ‘Spice’ Into Jail Hidden in Legal Correspondence, Jury Told

Alex Mullings also used drones to bring in dozens of tiny mobile phones

A man prepares to smoke "Spice", a synthetic marijuana drug, along a New York City street on Aug. 5, 2015. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

LONDON—An inmate masterminded an ingenious plan to smuggle the drug spice into several prisons by dissolving it and then impregnating legal correspondence with the solution, a jury has been told.

Alex Mullings, 32, also dreamed up a scheme to smuggle packages of drugs and dozens of tiny Zanco mobile phones into Swaleside prison in Kent by drone in the middle of the night, a trial at Southwark Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Kevin Dent, KC, said Mullings, who he described as running an operation akin to “an illegal Amazon” had pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including conspiracy to supply heroin on the streets of London on a “commercial” scale.

On Friday, Mr. Dent concluded a two-day opening speech at the trial of Mullings’s mother, Alexandra Nicolaou, 52, and co-defendants Charlotte Finch, 21, Hamza Ahmed, 29, Ahmed Binfgih, 58, Katriye Kaplan, 32, and Danyaal Msaouri-Coulson, 22.

Mr. Dent said Mullings began by smuggling spice into Swaleside prison but later expanded his operation to Wormwood Scrubs jail in west London and elsewhere.

Spice Smuggling Plan was ‘Quite Clever’

The prosecutor said the plan was “quite clever” and showed the jury two examples of the method he said Mullings and his accomplices used, which took advantage of Rule 39, which forbids prison officers from opening legal correspondence.

One was a blank Legal Ombudsman complaint form sent to Mullings in Swaleside prison and the other was a blank legal aid form sent to Mr. Ahmed, who at the time was an inmate at the same jail.

Referring to the first form, Mr. Dent said: “In fact it was found that these were sheets of paper which had been impregnated with spice.”

He said the legal aid form was also impregnated in the same manner and was accompanied by a fake solicitor’s letter.

Mr. Dent said Mullings’ gang even advertised on Instagram, offering “litres of spice liquid” at £500 per litre.

“It was a kind of franchise operation. They were supplying the spice liquid so people could do their own letters and send in their own sheets,” he added.

Mr. Dent said Mullings used 33 different mobile phones while in prison and he said all of the defendants broke the law when they spoke to him on the phone as they “must have known” he was a prisoner and was forbidden to use a mobile phone behind bars.

The prosecutor said Mullings and Ms. Finch exchanged hundreds of messages in which they discussed the equipment and chemicals she would need to produce fentanyl, a drug which Mr. Dent said was up to 100 times stronger than morphine.

Mr. Dent said: “Various purchases were made in order to set up a large-scale production of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs. By the end of January 2019 we can see from the messaging that Ms. Finch was already quite well informed about the kind of chemicals required to produce fentanyl.”

The prosecutor said most of the defendants gave no comment interviews when questioned by police.

But he said Mr. Ahmed claimed that when he arrived at Swaleside prison from Pentonville in January 2017 he found himself on the same wing as a man to whom he still owed £3,000.

He said the man threatened his life, he reported it to the prison authorities but was not transferred.

Mr. Ahmed said the man who threatened him then ordered him to look after some incriminating packages, which were later found in his cell. He denied they had been brought in by drone in the middle of the night.

Indictment Contains 17 Counts

The indictment contains 17 counts in total, three of which relate only to Mullings.

Ms. Nicolaou, Mr. Ahmed, Mr. Binfgih and Mr. Msaouri-Coulson deny conspiring with Mullings and others to smuggle spice and anabolic steroids into Swaleside prison between December 2016 and February 2017.

All four also deny conspiring with Mullings and others to smuggle mobile phones into a number of prisons between June 2016 and March 2018.

Ms. Finch, Ms. Nicolaou and Mr. Binfgih deny conspiring with Mullings and others to smuggle spice into Swaleside prison between March and August 2017.

Ms. Nicolaou, Mr. Binfgih, Ms. Kaplan and Ms. Finch deny conspiring with Mullings and others to supply heroin between March 2017 and June 2017.

Ms. Nicolaou, Ms. Kaplan and Ms. Finch deny conspiring with Mullings and others to supply spice between March 2017 and June 2017.

Ms. Nicolaou, Mr. Ahmed and Ms. Finch deny conspiring with Mullings and others to smuggle spice into Swaleside prison, Wormwood Scrubs and other prisons between September 2017 and October 2019.

Ms. Finch alone is charged with conspiring with Mullings and others to supply heroin between March 2018 and October 2019.

Ms. Finch, who was a teenager at the time, also denies two counts of conspiring to supply crack cocaine, two counts of supplying fentanyl and one count of conspiring to supply U-47700, a synthetic form of heroin also known as pink, all between March 2018 and October 2019.

Ms. Nicolaou, Ms. Kaplan and Ms. Finch also deny one count of transferring the proceeds of crime.

Mr. Ahmed, Mr. Binfgih, Mr, Msaouri-Coulson, Ms. Kaplan and Ms. Finch all deny transmitting or causing to transmit without authorisation sounds or images from within one of Her Majesty’s Prisons, namely phone calls, text-based messages and images, between January 2016 and December 2019.

Ms. Nicolaou has admitted this offence, which relates to phone calls to and from her son.

The trial is due to last several weeks.