Selling heroin and crack cocaine allowed a drug dealer to covertly support her lifestyle of luxury, which included expensive purses and international travel.
Engineering degree from the University of Hull Danielle Stafford, 29, spent big money on three pricey Louis Vuitton purses and nine watches.
She also purchased a second property, and thanks to a consistent “extra cash flow stream,” she was able to live well without ever touching her regular paycheck.
Her drug business, however, started “unraveling before her own eyes” when she was accidentally stopped by police for speeding, Hull Crown Court heard.
Once she was caught, her phone rang continually with 30 calls, and after further investigation, police discovered narcotics with a market value of £33,600 and $26,917 in cash secreted all around her house.
Stafford, 29, of Hallgate, Cottingham, guilty to three counts of being involved in the supply of heroin, crack cocaine, and marijuana as well as one count of having cash in his possession on the basis of illegal property, all of which occurred between October 2017 and May 2020.
She first pleaded not guilty to nine offenses, and the prosecution had already presented its case in court when she abruptly altered her pleas to guilty on four of the counts.
The prosecutor, Nadim Bashir, said that text conversations found by police on Stafford’s phone, dating back to October 2017, showed her instructing another woman to carry out £10 or £20 cannabis trades while she was away. Make sure he pays, she said in one message.
There were listings of those with outstanding debts. Danielle Stafford advertised a list of the cannabis strains she had to offer, along with their pricing, in a group chat, according to Mr. Bashir. There were other group messages sent that advertised sales. Cocaine drug trafficking was also depicted in the letters.
This remained entirely unobserved by the police until one day in May 2020, when they saw her driving style. It was the beginning of the case coming apart in front of her, according to Mr. Bashir.
About 7:30 p.m. on May 12, 2020, in Hull, police saw a silver Audi traveling down Priory Road in the direction of the city center. It sped up and made a quick turn into Hotham Road South, cutting the corner and colliding with a car traveling the other way.
The vehicle was then driven swiftly up Hotham Road South, according to Mr. Bashir.
The vehicle was pursued and eventually halted in the parking lot of The Odd Bottle on Wold Road. Officers were suspicious because they could smell marijuana coming from inside the automobile.
She “quickly lied” and said to the cops, “I’ll be honest, I’ve got this,” while handing them a little silver wrap with two cannabis skunk buds inside.
Officers discovered more cannabis bags on her, including a food bag carrying cannabis skunk and another food bag containing cannabis skunk that was pulled from a pocket.
A carrier bag of cannabis skunk was discovered behind the driver’s seat when the vehicle was examined. There was a pail that was empty but had drug residue. The cannabis was worth £1,308 in total. There was an iPhone that had texts about drugs on it.
The mobile iPhone was continuously ringing and getting messages from various persons from the time the narcotics were seized until the time the suspects arrived in the police station holding suite, according to Mr. Bashir. “Around 30 phone calls and 10 to 20 SMS were received.”
Stafford was questioned whether she had any more narcotics concealed after she was seen “fidgeting” with her jogging pants on the way to the police station.
Absolutely, but that’s not mine, and I have no idea what it is, she said. As you pulled me, I put it down my jogging pants. Stafford yanked a bag with many little bags of cocaine out from in between her legs. 56 packages of crack cocaine totaling $2,800 were present.
Police forced access and searched her Cottingham, three-bedroom end-terrace house. At a coal bunker in the back yard, a glass jar with plastic bags inside was discovered concealed under a sack of coal bricks. The jar contained 205 wraps of heroin and 270 wraps of crack cocaine, with a combined worth of £13,500. Stafford claimed to be unaware of them.
Herbal cannabis, worth £2,500, was discovered in the living room on a table in an empty, open banana box. She disputed ownership of it. A total of £370 worth of cannabis was kept in two glass jars. In addition, the police discovered weighing scales, a large sum of cash, and additional food bags. She acknowledged ownership of this.
Stafford’s bedroom had £25.36 in coins and £430 in cash. Tablets of Ecstasy and herbal cannabis were discovered. Together with cash totaling £2,350 and £1,480, bank notes totaling £670 were discovered.
She disputed ownership of the additional cash, which amounted to £7,580, that was discovered in a safe. Nine watches and three purses from Louis Vuitton were discovered. She acknowledged ownership of them.
Cash bundles totaling £9,100, £1,668, £550, £700, £1,110, £165, £190, and £91 were discovered in an upstairs box room. A review of Stafford’s bank accounts indicated that, in addition to her monthly salary from working for Swift Group, “she plainly had an extra source of cash income.”
While she had vacationed, her bank account showed no evidence of her purchasing foreign currency or making transactions outside of the country. Likewise, Mr. Bashir stated, “there is evidence of an extra cash stream revenue.”
In March 2016 Stafford purchased her Cottingham house for £124,999 with a mortgage in her single name, and in July 2018 she purchased a property on Hotham Road South without a mortgage for £68,500 in equal shares with her aunt. Stafford paid the “lion’s share” of £64,927 by cashing in premium bonds, and she admitted to police that she acquired the property with the intention of renting it out.
Even with rental or lodging allowances, neither property could generate enough revenue to cover the money discovered in the home, according to Mr. Bashir.
In a police interview, Stafford said that a young man from Liverpool had intermittently been living with her and had called to report that he had left something at her house. When he requested her to bring the enormous quantity of cannabis to him when she arrived home, she responded that she did not feel comfortable doing so.
According to her, he just requested her to bring a bag that was already there, so she allegedly grabbed one in a fit of panic and started driving to meet him. While subsequently admitting that she would travel to Liverpool and bring the boy back to Hull, Stafford first claimed that she or the boy were peddling narcotics.
With the exception of $2,350, which belonged to her, she said she looked after the vast sums of cash discovered around her house for the boy and even kept them there.
She said that the money in the safe had nothing to do with her and that the boy was the rightful owner of all the other cash, according to Mr. Bashir.
He testified before the court that Stafford began as a “enthusiastic” marijuana dealer and advanced to dealing Class A cocaine.
Over a considerable amount of time, “she had managed to keep her drug peddling operations from getting to the notice of the police,” said Mr. Bashir.
She was able to amass a sizeable amount of cash as a natural outcome of this, and she even bought a rental home as an investment property. Her residence was raided for cash, totaling $26,917.
The quantity, variety, and cost of the medications discovered at her residence were significant. To argue that they were for her own use or even belonged to some other unidentified third party is, to put it mildly, ridiculous. The street value of the narcotics alone was £33,600.
Danielle Stafford has a long history of involvement in the distribution of both Class A and Class B narcotics. While she was paid into a bank account, she never withdrew any money for daily expenses, thus her salary accumulated instead.
She didn’t have to since her drug trafficking company had her flush with cash. She was able to let her earnings accumulate so she could utilize it to buy real estate.
Stafford, who has no prior convictions, was granted conditional release while the sentence was postponed until reports were obtained. She had previously been detained for protracted periods of time before being released on bond.
Selling heroin, crack cocaine, and cannabis allowed a lady who loved luxury to covertly finance a luxurious lifestyle that included expensive handbags, overseas vacations, the purchase of a second home, and living without using any of her work money.
Danielle Stafford, an engineer and University of Hull graduate, had a long-standing “extra financial flow stream,” but she was only apprehended by accident when police caught her speeding and her drug empire “unraveled before her own eyes.”
Once she was caught, her phone rang continually with 30 calls, and after further investigation, police discovered narcotics with a market value of £33,600 and $26,917 in cash secreted all around her house.
According to testimony given at Hull Crown Court, she was “awash with riches” from her drug trafficking operation and had luxuries including nine watches and three pricey Louis Vuitton handbags.
Stafford, 29, of Hallgate, Cottingham, guilty to three counts of being involved in the supply of heroin, crack cocaine, and marijuana as well as one count of having cash in his possession on the basis of illegal property, all of which occurred between October 2017 and May 2020.
She first pleaded not guilty to nine offenses, and the prosecution had already presented its case in court when she abruptly altered her pleas to guilty on four of the counts.
The prosecutor, Nadim Bashir, said that text conversations found by police on Stafford’s phone, dating back to October 2017, showed her instructing another woman to carry out £10 or £20 cannabis trades while she was away. Make sure he pays, she said in one message.
There were listings of those with outstanding debts. Danielle Stafford advertised a list of the cannabis strains she had to offer, along with their pricing, in a group chat, according to Mr. Bashir. There were other group messages sent that advertised sales. Cocaine drug trafficking was also depicted in the letters.
This remained entirely unobserved by the police until one day in May 2020, when they saw her driving style. It was the beginning of the case coming apart in front of her, according to Mr. Bashir.
About 7:30 p.m. on May 12, 2020, in Hull, police saw a silver Audi traveling down Priory Road in the direction of the city center. It sped up and made a quick turn into Hotham Road South, cutting the corner and colliding with a car traveling the other way.
The vehicle was then driven swiftly up Hotham Road South, according to Mr. Bashir.
The vehicle was pursued and eventually halted in the parking lot of The Odd Bottle on Wold Road. Officers were suspicious because they could smell marijuana coming from inside the automobile.
She “quickly lied” and said to the cops, “I’ll be honest, I’ve got this,” while handing them a little silver wrap with two cannabis skunk buds inside.
Officers discovered more cannabis bags on her, including a food bag carrying cannabis skunk and another food bag containing cannabis skunk that was pulled from a pocket.
A carrier bag of cannabis skunk was discovered behind the driver’s seat when the vehicle was examined. There was a pail that was empty but had drug residue. The cannabis was worth £1,308 in total. There was an iPhone that had texts about drugs on it.
The mobile iPhone was continuously ringing and getting messages from various persons from the time the narcotics were seized until the time the suspects arrived in the police station holding suite, according to Mr. Bashir. “Around 30 phone calls and 10 to 20 SMS were received.”
Stafford was questioned whether she had any more narcotics concealed after she was seen “fidgeting” with her jogging pants on the way to the police station.
Absolutely, but that’s not mine, and I have no idea what it is, she said. As you pulled me, I put it down my jogging pants. Stafford yanked a bag with many little bags of cocaine out from in between her legs. 56 packages of crack cocaine totaling $2,800 were present.
Police forced access and searched her Cottingham, three-bedroom end-terrace house. At a coal bunker in the back yard, a glass jar with plastic bags inside was discovered concealed under a sack of coal bricks. The jar contained 205 wraps of heroin and 270 wraps of crack cocaine, with a combined worth of £13,500. Stafford claimed to be unaware of them.
Herbal cannabis, worth £2,500, was discovered in the living room on a table in an empty, open banana box. She disputed ownership of it. A total of £370 worth of cannabis was kept in two glass jars. In addition, the police discovered weighing scales, a large sum of cash, and additional food bags. She acknowledged ownership of this.
Stafford’s bedroom had £25.36 in coins and £430 in cash. Tablets of Ecstasy and herbal cannabis were discovered. Together with cash totaling £2,350 and £1,480, bank notes totaling £670 were discovered.
She disputed ownership of the additional cash, which amounted to £7,580, that was discovered in a safe. Nine watches and three purses from Louis Vuitton were discovered. She acknowledged ownership of them.
Cash bundles totaling £9,100, £1,668, £550, £700, £1,110, £165, £190, and £91 were discovered in an upstairs box room. A review of Stafford’s bank accounts indicated that, in addition to her monthly salary from working for Swift Group, “she plainly had an extra source of cash income.”
While she had vacationed, her bank account showed no evidence of her purchasing foreign currency or making transactions outside of the country. Likewise, Mr. Bashir stated, “there is evidence of an extra cash stream revenue.”
In March 2016 Stafford purchased her Cottingham house for £124,999 with a mortgage in her single name, and in July 2018 she purchased a property on Hotham Road South without a mortgage for £68,500 in equal shares with her aunt. Stafford paid the “lion’s share” of £64,927 by cashing in premium bonds, and she admitted to police that she acquired the property with the intention of renting it out.
Even with rental or lodging allowances, neither property could generate enough revenue to cover the money discovered in the home, according to Mr. Bashir.
In a police interview, Stafford said that a young man from Liverpool had intermittently been living with her and had called to report that he had left something at her house. When he requested her to bring the enormous quantity of cannabis to him when she arrived home, she responded that she did not feel comfortable doing so.
According to her, he just requested her to bring a bag that was already there, so she allegedly grabbed one in a fit of panic and started driving to meet him. While subsequently admitting that she would travel to Liverpool and bring the boy back to Hull, Stafford first claimed that she or the boy were peddling narcotics.
With the exception of $2,350, which belonged to her, she said she looked after the vast sums of cash discovered around her house for the boy and even kept them there.
She said that the money in the safe had nothing to do with her and that the boy was the rightful owner of all the other cash, according to Mr. Bashir.
He testified before the court that Stafford began as a “enthusiastic” marijuana dealer and advanced to dealing Class A cocaine.
Over a considerable amount of time, “she had managed to keep her drug peddling operations from getting to the notice of the police,” said Mr. Bashir.
She was able to amass a sizeable amount of cash as a natural outcome of this, and she even bought a rental home as an investment property. Her residence was raided for cash, totaling $26,917.
The quantity, variety, and cost of the medications discovered at her residence were significant. To argue that they were for her own use or even belonged to some other unidentified third party is, to put it mildly, ridiculous. The street value of the narcotics alone was £33,600.
Danielle Stafford has a long history of involvement in the distribution of both Class A and Class B narcotics. While she was paid into a bank account, she never withdrew any money for daily expenses, thus her salary accumulated instead.
She didn’t have to since her drug trafficking company had her flush with cash. She was able to let her earnings accumulate so she could utilize it to buy real estate.
Stafford, who has no prior convictions, was granted conditional release while the sentence was postponed until reports were obtained. She had previously been detained for protracted periods of time before being released on bond.
»29-year-old woman lives lavishly on heroin and crack cocaine sales«