The leader of a Birmingham drugs gang, who is the son of Staffordshire’s former deputy police and crime commissioner, has been jailed for 23 and a half years.
Jonathan Arnold led a crew of crooks who conspired to bring millions of pounds of class A drugs hidden among bananas and furniture into the UK.
It was one of the biggest drug smuggling operations ever seen in the West Midlands.
Master criminal Jonathan’s mother is Sue Arnold, a former leading figure in Staffordshire’s police and crime commissioner team.
He used a furniture removal business as a front for a drugs empire which saw a ‘colossal’ amount of drugs smuggled in from Colombia and helped fund a lavish life of luxury including trips to Dubai, a Ferrari and an expensive Rolex.
Ringleader Jonathan Arnold boasted of his wealth online by posting photos and videos of him wearing a Rolex and driving a Ferrari
Jonathan, top right, was locked up after pleading guilty to three counts of conspiring to import drugs and one count of conspiring to supply class A drugs. Co-conspirators James Jenkins (lower left), 25, Humayan Sadiq (lower right), 43, and Connor Fletcher (top right), 25, were jailed for 15, 27 and 12 years respectively for their role in the operation.
Jonathan, from Sutton Coldfield, even used drug money to pay for a set of new teeth.
But the smile was wiped from his face as his criminal enterprise was brought crashing down when Dutch authorities discovered his haul.
Long-serving Mrs Arnold served on the other side of the law, holding the role of deputy to Matthew Ellis between 2012 and 2021.
A key part of her job was to hold the county’s police force to account on tackling crime.
Walsall-born Mrs Arnold, who lives near Tamworth, also made a bid to become an MP in 2015, standing for the Conservatives in Walsall South.
She lost out to Labour’s Valerie Vaz by 6,000 votes. There is no suggestion she had any knowledge of her son’s criminal ways and she has made no comment.
Sue Arnold, his mother, is a former figure in the local police and crime commissioner team
Jonathan Arnold showing off his wealth in Dubai with his very flashy watch on his wrist
Jonathan Arnold, showing off his teeth which he had done in Dubai with his huge fortune
Her 30-year-old son headed up a gang of crooks stretching from Lichfield and Tamworth to the Black Country and planned to flood the region’s streets with millions of pounds of class A drugs.
Detectives revealed how Jonathan Arnold used his removal business vehicles to collect and transfer the drugs to other organised crime groups for onward distribution. Vehicles were loaded with furniture behind which the drugs were stashed in a bid to fool border officials if they were ever stopped and searched.
In April 2022, Jonathan was involved in a conspiracy to supply 1,477kg of cocaine, with an eye-watering street value of approximately £118 million.
The coke had been hidden inside pallets of bananas on board of a ship from Colombia. The shipment of drugs was destined to arrive via Portsmouth.
However, during a planned stop in the Netherlands, the huge haul was seized by Dutch police who informed UK authorities.
Jonathan was locked up after pleading guilty to three counts of conspiring to import drugs and one count of conspiring to supply class A drugs.
Co-conspirators James Jenkins, 25, Humayan Sadiq, 43, and Connor Fletcher, 25, were jailed for 15, 27 and 12 years respectively for their role in the operation.
Arnold and his gang smuggled nearly two tonnes of cocaine (pictured), heroin and ketamine into the UK.
Jenkins assisted in helping to arrange drivers and acted as a supervisor for the operation, while Fletcher was employed as a driver, investigators said.
Sadiq was also involved, having waited outside Portsmouth docks in a car for an unauthorised HGV to collect the drugs from the port, and then followed the lorry to a motorway services north of Winchester.
Ringleader Jonathan and others then took over control of the movement of the drugs by road to premises rented by him in Staffordshire. In June 2022, Fletcher was arrested on his return to Dover from Calais after Border Force discovered 60kg of cocaine concealed in the lorry he was driving.
Tim Burton, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘This was a sophisticated criminal operation and the amount of drugs this gang was attempting to import into the country was colossal.
‘These drugs were intended to be put into the hands of other crime groups. Had everyone involved in this criminal activity been successful, millions of pounds worth of drugs could have ended up on the streets of UK towns and cities causing public harm.’
Detective Chief Superintendent Jenny Skyrme, head of the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit, said: ‘We can’t underestimate the scale and significance of this criminal organisation. This is the biggest drugs case that we have ever dealt with as an organisation.
‘The gang was operating at the highest levels of criminality, bringing in industrial quantities of drugs to sell on the streets of the West Midlands and beyond. As the head of the crime group, Jonathan Arnold enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, driving luxury cars and enjoying trips to Dubai.
‘He gave the impression that he was a legitimate businessman with a small firm which moved furniture and had a turnover of £50,000 a month. The reality was that he was arranging tens of millions of pounds worth of drugs to be imported into the UK from Europe and South America, which would have gone on to cause untold misery and significant harm to communities.
She added: ‘We were able to build a really detailed picture of this operation through mobile phone analysis, CCTV and other intelligence. Working with the National Crime Agency, Border Force, and law enforcement abroad, we’ve been able to put the gang behind bars where they will spend many years.’
