When Danny Brown got a new puppy, he couldn't resist sending a photo of his beloved dog to friends.
But the photo of Bob the French Bulldog not only landed the crime boss in the doghouse, but also resulted in him being arrested by police over a £45 million drug trafficking ring.
Now the drug lord who ran one of Britain's biggest ecstasy smuggling rings has been ordered to pay back his profits after this photo finally exposed his entire operation.
National Crime Agency investigators secretly sniffing for messages between drug traffickers managed to identify Brown as one of the group's leaders after spotting his girlfriend's phone number on Bob's collar tag.
As a result, NCA officers were able to identify his six cohorts who planned to smuggle £45 million of MDMA into Australia, hidden in the arm of a mechanical digger.
Brown and his gang were later jailed for a total of 163 years at Kingston Crown Court in December 2022.
Now the 57-year-old will count the cost of sharing the puppy photo as he faces a seizure hearing later this year.
Yesterday (Tuesday) his cohorts, Stefan Baldauf, 64, and Philip Lawson, 63, were told to hand over almost £1.2 million or face additional jail time.
Danny Brown (pictured) ran one of Britain's biggest ecstasy smuggling rings and has now been ordered to pay back profits after a photo of his dog ultimately exposed his entire operation
This photo of Danny Brown's French bulldog 'Bob' had his girlfriend's phone number on the collar, which was used by investigators to dismantle Brown's illegal business
Brown had sent an image of 'Bob', the French bulldog, to accomplice Stefan Baldauf
Baldauf, who was jailed for 28 years, was ordered to pay back £1 million in profits or face an additional seven years in prison.
While Lawson, who designed the drug skin in the digger and arranged for a welder to cut it open, was ordered to pay £182,476.
The money will go towards fighting crime, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
NCA investigators have revealed the extraordinary story of how the young pup led them to the network.
Agents who hacked into an encrypted telephone network used by crooks known as Encrochat uncovered a plot to smuggle 448 kilos of ecstasy by staging a fake auction to make the transport of the machines over 10,000 miles from Southampton to Brisbane appear legitimate.
The gang had been using Encrochat for a year to export the huge quantity of Class A drugs, using anonymous handles such as 'throwthedice' to disguise their names.
But Brown accidentally identified himself after proudly sending an image of his new pet to Baldauf on April 11, 2020.
The pair then further incriminated themselves in a series of 'casual selfies'.
Brown accidentally took a picture of a television with his reflection in it on his encrochat phone.
Baldauf also sent an image of the intended meeting place to the rest of the gang, inadvertently capturing his face in the reflection of a brass door plate.
The images were intended to be important pieces of evidence to convince jurors of their role in the conspiracy.
Stefan Baldauf also sent an image of an intended meeting place to the rest of the gang, inadvertently capturing his face in the reflection of a brass door plate
An NCA investigation revealed the gang planned to hide drugs in the arm of a mechanical excavator
The gang organized an online auction for the digger and bought him for €75,000 so that the intended recipients could conceal their purchase.
Investigators then watched as the excavator was transported to Southampton Docks and arrived in Brisbane.
Upon arrival, Australian Border Police officers secretly removed the drugs and resealed the arm after adding a tracker and listening device.
The digger was taken to a site near Sydney, where the gang searched for the missing merchandise for days before realizing they had been tampered with.
When police finally arrived to arrest Brown in Putney, south-west London, they found his loyal friend Bob at his side.
Brown was later sentenced to 26 years in prison.
Chris Hill, who led the operation, said: 'These criminals did not care about the misery and exploitation that the supply of illegal drugs brings to the British and Australian communities.
'All they cared about was money.
'So these proceedings are extremely painful for them, they hit them in the pockets and are a crucial way of showing other organized criminals that the consequences do not end when the prison door slams shut.
“The NCA continues to do everything possible, at home and abroad, to protect the public from the threat of illicit drug supply.”
