Relaxing on a £100,000 sports car with a £1,900 Louis Vuitton bag draped over his shoulder, Dante Morrison certainly did not look like a penniless slave.
On the contrary, the 25-year-old appeared to enjoy all the trappings of wealth, shopping for Chanel in Harrods, showing off his wads of cash on social media and splashing out on flash holidays abroad.
Yet when the drug kingpin was caught running a county lines operation recruiting children as young as 14 on Snapchat, he attempted to convince police and prosecutors that he was the victim of modern slavery.
In an extraordinary case which makes a mockery of laws brought in to protect the vulnerable, Morrison spun a web of lies. He claimed to have been enslaved since the age of 15 living in fear of his life from ruthless drug dealers who controlled his every move and refused to pay him a penny.
He seized on an unconnected local shooting to invent a tale about only just surviving when his heartless handlers fired towards him, but missed.
Relaxing on a £100,000 sports car with a £1,900 Louis Vuitton bag draped over his shoulder, Dante Morrison certainly did not look like a penniless slave
Morrison’s story of slavery unravelled when officers discovered a stack of photographs showing him enjoying luxury holidays in Greece, lounging in a hammock and sunbathing by a pool
Dante Morrison, 25, of Brownlow Road, Harlesden was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs
Harder to explain, however, were the sums of £10,000 regularly appearing in his bank account from the profits of his enormous drugs operation which supplied more than 1,000 customers.
Despite this, his prosecution was delayed while his claim was made to the national referral mechanism for modern slavery and independently investigated.
Detectives discovered that Morrison had been using children to deliver heroin and crack cocaine across Harlesden in north-west London since 2021.
At least four teenagers aged 14 to 17 were forced to smuggle drugs in their underwear for Morrison’s ‘Marlo’ county line, which refers to the mobile phones used to advertise drugs to customers.
Police began a major investigation in February 2022 after finding two boys aged 17 and 14 transporting crack cocaine and heroin who had Morrison’s phone number. They found that the county line kingpin made vast profits from the misery of children.He indulged in lavish shopping trips to Harrods where he photographed a cashier counting his bundle of cash at a Chanel counter.
Morrison splashed out on gold jewellery and clothes from Louis Vuitton, Chanel and designer sports brands, proudly posing for pictures next to his shopping bags.
His story of slavery unravelled when officers discovered a stack of photographs showing Morrison sitting on the bonnet of a BMW i8 and enjoying luxury holidays in Greece, lounging in a hammock and sunbathing by a pool.
Far from his claims that he never received any money, Morrison repeatedly bragged online about his bulging Louis Vuitton wallet full of cash.
Morrison splashed out on gold jewellery and clothes from Louis Vuitton, Chanel and designer sports brands, proudly posing for pictures next to his shopping bags
He was finally brought to justice last week and sentenced to seven years in jail for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
His ‘lieutenant’ Wojciech Huczko, 43, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison after cocaine and heroin valued at £47,000 was recovered from his home.
Yesterday Detective Constable Dec James, of the Metropolitan Police’s North West Command Unit, said: ‘These men thought that by using children for their drug deliveries they would not be tracked down by police. How wrong they were.
‘We were able to use communication data analysis to link the use of the four child runners to a single drugs network rather than isolated investigations. I would urge parents and guardians who have concerns around child criminal exploitation to contact police or partners.’
Morrison’s ‘lieutenant’ Wojciech Huczko, 43, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison after cocaine and heroin valued at £47,000 was recovered from his home
Section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act provides a statutory defence for exploited victims forced to carry out certain criminal offences such as selling drugs.
It was designed to encourage victims of slavery to give evidence without fear of being convicted for offences connected to their slavery.
But the law is often abused by gangs attempting to get out of criminal prosecutions.
In one case, a 12-year-old boy was shot in the face by a suspect who had previously escaped trial over alleged drug offences due to a positive decision in a modern slavery referral.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has previously raised concerns about the abuse of the law.
Last year she warned: ‘The hard truth is that our modern slavery laws are being abused by people gaming the system.
We’ve seen a 450 per cent increase in modern slavery claims since 2014.’
