'Gangster Granny' Sentenced to Decades Behind Bars

A criminal known as “Gangster Granny” has been sentenced to decades behind bars for dealing drugs worth a combined $100 million, The Guardian reported.

On July 18, eight people—numbering one man and seven women, including “Gangster Granny” Deborah Mason—were sentenced to a combined 106 years and six months behind bars for selling roughly 1,000 kg of cocaine over seven months in the United Kingdom. Mason, 65, who was known as the “Queen Bee” of the scheme which saw about $107 million (£80 million) worth of cocaine distributed throughout the country, was sentenced to 20 years for her role. She reportedly sourced the drugs from a supplier known as Bugsy.

“This was a sophisticated operation which was extremely profitable for those involved,” said Metropolitan Detective Constable Jack Kraushaar, the lead investigator. "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 U.K. which leads to violence, antisocial behavior, and misery for communities."

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The other seven people who were sentenced are Mason’s sister, Tina Golding, and her children, Demi Bright, Roseanne Mason, Lillie Bright, and Reggie Bright. Reggie and Lillie Bright’s partners, Demi Kendall and Chloe Hodgkin, as well as Demi Bright’s friend, Anita Slaughter, reportedly also had “significant” roles in the operation, which was run out of Mason’s North London home. The other plaintiffs were sentenced to between 10 and 15 years in prison.

“This was no ordinary family,” said Robert Hutchinson, Specialist Prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service. “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."