Ealing Drug Trafficker Ordered to Hand Over £1Million

Stefan Baldau was caught due to a photo of a bulldog called Bob

Stefan Baldau (left) and Bob the Dog (right). Picture: NCA

January 22, 2025

A 64-year-old drugs trafficker from Ealing has been ordered to hand over more than a million pounds or face extra time in jail.

Stefan Baldau of Midhurst Road was caught when fellow gang member Danny Brown sent him a picture of his French Bulldog Bob on the encrypted communications platform EncroChat. Real names were not used on the system so the only way to identify the people sending messages was when they inadvertently provided evidence in photos they sent.

Unbeknownst to either, officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) were able to access these messages as part of Operation Venetic. They had discovered a plan by an organised crime group (OCG) to smuggle 448kg of MDMA worth £45 million inside an excavator which was being exported to Australia in 2020.

The street price of MDMA is much higher than in the UK and the drugs inside the 40-tonne Doosan digger were to have been acquired by the buyer through an online auction. The gang had put up the vehicle, which they had bought for 75,000 Euros, for sale to give the export an air of authenticity but became alarmed when other people start to view it online. They had rigged the auction by agreeing a pre-arranged bid with the intended recipients but transcripts from their EncroChat messages show that there was concern a legitimate buyer might have come in and bought the machine with its ‘hidden extras’.

Unfortunately for the OCG, they hadn’t realised that the police had been able to zoom in on the photo of Bob to discover his owner’s phone number. Bob was present to see Brown arrested.

Baldauf, also sent an image on EncroChat – which offenders thought was impenetrable – showing his reflection in a brass door sign.

The selfie taken by Baldauf which led to his identification. Picture: NCA

This Monday (20 January) at Kingston Crown Court, Baldauf, who was jailed for 28 years in December 2022, was ordered to repay £1,007,637. He has three months to pay or will receive an extra seven years in jail.

63-year-old Philip Lawson, who designed the drugs hide in the digger and arranged a welder to cut it open and then seal the digger, was sentenced to 23 years.

He was ordered to pay £182,476. He also has three months to pay with failure resulting in the imposition of another three years on his sentence.

The funds will go towards further crime fighting and the Treasury.

Brown, who was jailed for 26 years, will face a confiscation hearing later in the year along with another of the group, William Sartin, 63, of Timberlog Lane, Basildon, Essex. The excavator was concealed in Sartin’s industrial unit. He was sentenced to 23 years.

Chris Hill, who led the NCA investigation, said, “These criminals did not care about the misery and exploitation that the supply of illegal drugs bring to UK and Australian communities. All they cared about was money.

“So these proceedings are immensely painful for them, hitting them in their pockets and are a crucial way of showing other organised criminals that the consequences do not end when the prison door slams shut.

“The NCA continues to do everything possible, working at home and abroad, to protect the public from the threat of illegal drugs supply.”