Andrew Pritchard, a reformed gangster who claims to have shipped hundreds of millions of pounds worth of drugs into the UK, details his past in a new book called Empire of Dirt. ' Pritchard claims he operated a scheme that inundated Europe with hundreds of millions of pounds worth of cocaine and cannabis. He spent nearly three decades in the international drug trade, according to his account.
Upon release from prison in 2019, Andrew Pritchard renounced crime and decided to speak out about corruption, he says. He now runs a charitable foundation supporting prisoner rehabilitation and at-risk youth, based on his statements. The specific customs officers, police officers, or high-ranking officials allegedly on his payroll have not been identified.
Not even Pablo Escobar, at the height of his power had a facility like this running straight into the UK.
Pritchard alleges he imported drugs through corrupt customs officers and that x-ray machines were turned off to allow drug consignments to pass without suspicion, though the exact methods remain unclear. He also claims using fake passports and having customs, police officers, and high-ranking officials on his payroll. Andrew Pritchard was apprehended in 2004 following the largest drug seizure in UK history, when £100 million worth of cocaine was discovered outside Spitalfields market, concealed in coconuts.
He was cleared in two trials but later imprisoned for driving with £1 million worth of cocaine and perverting the course of justice, though the names and outcomes of those trials are not detailed in available information. Andrew Pritchard started in the narcotics world after becoming an unlicensed rave conductor, he recounts. He began by transporting up to 500,000 pills monthly with a Dutch couple operating a laboratory.
By the end of the acid house era I noticed a dark, sinister side emerging.
' He added, 'My mindset had changed, geared towards money and power with no consideration for the consequences. ' Evidence supporting Pritchard's claim of importing more cocaine than Pablo Escobar has not been publicly verified. His charitable foundation's specific origins and programs are also not detailed in the claims.
Andrew Pritchard's account provides a rare glimpse into the scale and corruption alleged within the UK's historical drug trade.