Jail for tiny cog in the machine

By Chris Summers
BBC News Website

Victor Sarria Ortiz was a tiny cog in the Colombian drug network brought down by police, which at its peak is estimated to have brought a tonne of cocaine into the UK a year, with a value of £25m.

Police raided numerous homes in 2003

He was employed for a few months as a driver for the chief money launderer, Luis Fernando Carranza Reyes, who started an eight-year jail sentence in 2004.

In October Sarria pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge at Southwark Crown Court and was jailed for two years.

Having already served seven months on remand, Sarria will be released shortly but his family, who live in Camberwell, south London, will have to wait to see whether he faces deportation back to Colombia.

'Dim view'

He came to Britain in 1993 with his wife and their two children. They had another child, a boy, in 1994 and worked hard to establish themselves in the UK.

But they had not been granted British citizenship by the time of Sarria's arrest in September 2003, and his conviction may lead to his deportation.

Sentencing him, the judge chose not to deport him and left the decision to the Home Office, but he said they may take a "dim view" of the conviction.

So what led him to this sorry situation?

The court heard that Sarria, 45, and his wife were both incredibly "industrious" people who held down several jobs.

Michael Borrelli, QC, outlined his client's average working day: "He starts work at 5.30 in the morning, he has a cleaning job at BMW in Park Lane. He then goes to another cleaning job before his main job at a diamond firm.

"He works there until 6pm and then he does another two-hour cleaning shift. It's remarkable that he manages to keep it up working those sort of hours."

But Sarria's keenness to work and earn money for his family was his downfall.

In August 2002 he was offered a job as an occasional driver by Carranza, who worked at a money transfer firm and had often helped him quite legitimately send money back to his family in Colombia.

The job involved driving Carranza to various locations around London where he met people and picked up rucksacks loaded with up to £180,000 from them.

He was paid £200 a time.

He is not the sharpest pencil in the box - trusting and not terribly bright Michael Borrelli QC

Mr Borrelli admitted of his client: "He is not the sharpest pencil in the box. Trusting and not terribly bright."

He added: "The defendant was told from the outset that the money in those bags was part of the money transfer business and it was not until late February 2003 that the penny dropped.

"At all times Carranza denied he was handling the proceeds from drug sales. But by the end of February this defendant no longer relied on the denials he had been given and he formed a suspicion that the money had indeed come from drugs."

The operation was the culmination of a long investigation

But Annabel Darlow, prosecuting, said that despite his realisation of what was going on Sarria continued to drive Carranza around for another three months.

She said it was estimated that during the time he worked for him Carranza had picked up £1,170,000 from his various dealers.

Ms Darlow said a search of Sarria's home found that he had installed a new kitchen, a home cinema, a stereo system and two computers and had deposited a total of £11,000 in cash into his bank during 2003.

In February there will be a hearing, under the Proceeds of Crime Act, to decide how much money should be confiscated from him.

The prosecution is also seeking £29,000 towards its costs.

Sarria only pleaded guilty at the last moment, so the prosecution had been preparing a trial for two years.