Drug dealing ‘gangster granny’ who led family in lucrative £1k-a-day cocaine operation jailed for 20 years
A drug dealing ‘gangster granny’ has been sentenced to 20 years behind bars after leading her family in a lucrative cocaine dealing operation.
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A family run organised crime group orchestrated by 65-year-old Deborah Mason, the grandmother's drug-dealing operation saw cocaine supplied across London and the UK.
However, her empire was seen to crumble following a Met investigation, with six women, a man and Deborah Mason, known as ‘Queen Bee’, sentenced to a combined 106 years and six months' behind bars on Friday.
Appearing in Woolwich Crown Court, each member of the group of eight were jailed for their involvement in supplying nearly a tonne of cocaine over seven months.
It is estimated each individual family member earned in excess of £1,000 a day.
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Messages revealed that Mason funded an extravagant lifestyle with the profits, having bought a Gucci collar and lead worth £400 for her cat, as well as luxury outdoor garden items and holidays.
Couriers were seen to collect packages of imported cocaine from the family's London addresses and drive them all over London and the UK to locations as far as Bradford, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff between April and November 2023.
The grandmother, of Crayford Road, Tufnell Park, was found to have played a leading role in the prolific criminal enterprise, Woolwich Crown Court heard.
The major breakthrough came in April 2023, when a hire car driven by the grandma left her house on Crayford Road, Tufnell Park for Harwich Port, Essex, arriving at around 6:20am
After just 20 minutes at the port, the grandmother collected a shipment of cocaine before heading back to London in her car.
What followed were a number of trips made by Mason, as well as the other seven defendants, embarking on various drop offs and collections over the course of a seven-month period.
Met officers discovered that trips were made to Harwich Port regularly, as well as locations across the UK.
The group used encrypted messaging site Signal to communicate. Officers trawled through thousands of messages following their arrests which further proved their criminal movements.
A number of hire cars and hotels were expensed as part of their spending.
All but one of the group were arrested in May 2024 following a Met investigation, with Anita Slaughter later arrested in November 2024 after being identified from the messages.
Following an 11-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court, Roseanne Mason, Chloe Hodgkin, Lillie Bright, Demi Bright and Anita Slaughter were all found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs on Monday, 28 April.
On Monday, the court found her guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and was sentenced at the same court to 20 years’ imprisonment on Friday, 18 July.
The sentencing comes as part of the Met’s relentless efforts to target perpetrators of crimes using precision technology.
Met Detective Constable Jack Kraushaar, who led the investigation, said: “This was a sophisticated operation which was extremely profitable for those involved.
“Following months of work by the Met Police to relentlessly pursue these perpetrators, we were able to arrest and eventually convict them, preventing more drugs flooding streets across the UK which leads to violence, antisocial behaviour and misery for communities.
“The group were sucked into criminality, selfishly attracted by the financial benefits of the drug-dealing to fund lavish lifestyles. They were unaware we were coming for them and this sentencing should act as a deterrent to those who think about committing this type of crime.”
Robert Hutchinson, Specialist Prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This was no ordinary family. Instead of nurturing and caring for her relatives, Deborah Mason recruited them to establish an extraordinarily profitable criminal enterprise that would ultimately put them all behind bars.
“The CPS worked closely with the police from the earliest opportunity to make sure we had ample evidence to prosecute them for the full extent of their actions.
“We reviewed thousands of messages and other digital evidence that not only revealed incriminating messages sent between them, but also a significant pattern of deleting messages, helping to prove that they all knew exactly what they were doing.”
Roseanne Mason, 29 (19.05.1996), of Grosvenor Avenue, Canonbury was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment.
Demi Bright, 30 (02.05.1995), of Samuel Peto Way, Ashford, Kent was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment.
Lillie Bright, 26 (04.04.1999), of Evergreen Way, Ashford, Kent was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment.
Reggie Bright, 24 (18.09.2000), of Frittenden Road, Staplehurst, Kent was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment.
Demi Kendall, 31 (15.05.1994), of Frittenden Road, Staplehurst, Kent was sentenced to 13 years and six months' imprisonment.
Tina Golding, 66 (24.01.1959), of Beecholme Drive, Ashford, Kent was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment.
Anita Slaughter, 44 (22.08.1980), of Pearmain Way, Ashford, Kent was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment.
Chloe Hodgkin, 23 (27.01.2002) of Abbots Walk, Wye, Kent will be sentenced at a date to be set.