Druglord

by Graham Johnson

  It was about 8 p.m. When I arrived, John Haase and Paul Bennett were already there in a Ford Granada. Two other men who I had not met were in a red/purple Carlton. They turned out to be Bulent Onay and Yilmaz Kaya. Paul Bennett came over to me and asked where it was. I told him in the boot. Bulent Onay got out of the Carlton and came over. I opened the boot and Bulent Onay took one of the bags containing heroin from the boot, which he then transferred to either the back seat or the boot of the Carlton. He then came back to my car with Yilmaz Kaya and they both took the remaining bags, containing heroin, and placed them in the Carlton. Once this was completed, John Haase and Paul Bennett left in the Granada and Bulent Onay drove away with Yilmaz Kaya in the Carlton. I then went home.

  The rest of the heroin, which could have been 10–15 kilos, was left in place on the railway embankment. After the New Year, in early January 1993, I was told by Paul Bennett to collect this heroin and take it to Scarsbrick Road, where I would be met by someone who I was to hand the heroin to. Again I collected it, went to Scarsbrick Road and handed it to a man I met there.

  After this, I was told many times to go to various places and collect drugs. I would then have to either stash these or drive to hand them over to a third party. I did not always know the person I was meeting, but I would be told where to go by Paul Bennett, and the person meeting me would know what car I was in. At this time, I had a pager on which I would be contacted by Paul Bennett or John Haase. I would then phone them on a contact number for instructions.

  Another job I did was to collect the money once the drugs were delivered. I would then take the money and leave it in my house or my mother’s house in Liverpool until instructed where to take it. During the early part of 1993, I would normally take the money and hand it to Paul Bennett. This later changed and I was told that I had to count the money and go to the Black Horse pub, which is on Prescot Road in Liverpool.

  I would meet ‘the Turks’ at the pub and give them the money. I went at short notice and they would usually be waiting for me. The two Turks I would meet were Yilmaz Kaya and Suleyman Ergun. Sometimes it was the two of them or just Ergun. I would hand the money across in plastic carrier bags. This money was solely from the sale of drugs.

  But sometimes there wasn’t enough money in the bags to satisfy the Turks. They had overheads like everyone. They had to buy opium in eastern Turkey and pay for a chemist to make the paste into heroin at one of the many hundreds of chemical-stinking makeshift labs in Istanbul. Sometimes the Turks got unhappy with the Scousers’ sporadic payments – especially as they were preparing another big shipment like in the summer of 1993.

  SULEYMAN ERGUN: Kaya went back to Turkey to oversee things there. Then I got a call from him while he was in Turkey telling me he would be coming over the following week. He asked me to contact John and get money from him. I spoke to John and told him what I needed and that Kaya would be coming. John asked me to meet a friend of his called Roy who lived down south. John said this guy called Roy would give me cash. I met Roy in a wine bar on Essex Road in north London called Cheers. He handed me a small bag with £5,000 in it. I said that was a piss-take. I took the money and called John again and told him that it wouldn’t do; it was too small. So I arranged to go to Liverpool and collect more money the next day. When I got there, I met Eddie Croker in the Black Horse. He had £12,000 in a carrier bag. I told Eddie that this wasn’t good enough also and to tell John that the money drops have to be bigger amounts. I told him that Kaya would be here very soon. Eddie was a laid-back person who was just doing what he was told. He said, ‘OK, I’ll tell John about it.’

  Kaya arrived in England. I met him at the airport – think it was Gatwick. We drove straight to Liverpool. John and Ben didn’t know we were on our way. I told Kaya what had been going on with the money drops. He wasn’t very happy about it but said we would sort it out. We got to Liverpool and paged John. He rang my mobile straight away. I told him that me and Kaya were in Liverpool and that we wanted to see him and Ben. Again, we met at the Black Horse. We talked about the money and they apologised and said it wouldn’t happen again. John asked me to go to a house and pick up some money while Ben and Kaya had a drink. John drove me to a house in Anfield. I think it was his own flat because he went through an alleyway and when he returned he had a carrier bag. He handed it to me. It had £140,000 in it. We drove back to the Black Horse and had a few more drinks and talked about more heroin being made. Kaya explained to John that as we were sitting here, it was being made in Turkey and that it would be around 100–120 kilos. Both Ben’s and John’s eyes lit up. They started to make all sorts of promises. We talked about the transport and the best way it could be done. Kaya said he would be returning to Turkey very soon and that he would be coming back with The Vulcan to finalise everything. We didn’t really need The Vulcan but he liked to take a break from Turkey and come over for a bit of shopping.

  Me and Kaya left the pub and drove back to London. When we got back to London, Kaya said, ‘Let’s count the money and stack it neatly.’ I said no because I was so bored. Kaya laughed at me and said even he got tired separating the ripped and burnt notes. In Turkey, banks wouldn’t change ripped or burnt notes. So he said, ‘OK, you go and I will count it.’ The money was counted and stacked neatly. The ripped and burnt notes were put aside to spend in England. It was funny because there would often be a few thousand in just ripped and burnt notes.

  Kaya returned to Turkey and a little while later he and The Vulcan returned to England. I knew they were coming but didn’t know the day. I was having a drink in the Jubilee pub when I got a call from Kaya saying that he and The Vulcan were at Euston station, which was just around the corner from the pub and from where I lived with my mum and dad. I told my mates I had to leave and drove to Euston and picked them up. Everything was running great. The gear in Turkey was ready, all vacuum-packed into one-kilo bags. We had a special machine over there, I think it was for packing food, that did the job. It sealed it so there was no, or at least not as much, smell. The next day, we planned to go to Liverpool.

  When I got home, I made a call to Ben. He told me John was in Ibiza with his girlfriend but would be back in Liverpool for the meet. The next morning, the three of us set off for Liverpool. It was a very warm day. When we got to Liverpool, we met in the Black Horse pub as usual, had one drink then the five of us left – me, Kaya, Vulcan, Ben and John. We went to the sauna on Rocky Lane. We started talking. We told John and Ben there would be 111 kilos of heroin coming to France. We explained that we would get it to Paris but John would have to pick it up there and get it to England. We told them that we wanted them to sort out the transport from Paris to Liverpool. They didn’t object and said OK.

  Ben and John left me and Kaya and Vulcan in the sauna. They said they would be back with a girl for each of us. We declined, but they returned with a black girl for The Vulcan. While the girl and The Vulcan were upstairs, me and Kaya were working out who would do the switch in Paris and how it would all be worked out. The gear would be brought from Turkey to France on a coach of people going on holiday to the south of France. It was only the driver and one other man who would know there was heroin concealed on the coach under the floorboards.

  Everything was worked out. The girl and The Vulcan returned from upstairs. She was told to leave. Then we sat down and agreed on what was to be done. We all shook hands on the deal. John and Ben promised £1 million in the first week in one drop. We would be giving them 100 kilos. They or we were to use 10 kilos of the 111-kilo load to pay our Turkish contacts for the transport from Turkey to Paris. An extra kilo would be used for wastage or emergency payments, such as rent for a safehouse. The remaining 100 kilos they were getting from us at £20,000 a kilo on tick – credit! Ben and John were very happy about this as they had never had a deal like this before. Not only was it very big but to them the heroin was basically being given to them free. They didn’t have to lay out a penny. Once it was sold, they would have to pay us 100 kilos at
£20,000, which equals £2 million. The only condition was they would have to give us half of that, £1 million, in the first week after delivery.

  Me and Kaya then went to Turkey. That was on 15 May 1993. Kaya wasn’t feeling well. I noticed this on the plane. I didn’t know what was wrong with him but I think he took something to calm him down or make him sleep. He started to knock a few whiskies back like water and after a while passed out. When we landed in Turkey, we were picked up by Kaya’s brother. We greeted each other then walked to a big black Mercedes. We got in and started to drive away. We had another car in front and one behind for security. We were in Istanbul. First we dropped Kaya off to his own house, because his wife was waiting. Me and his brother went for a drink and talked for ages. After the drinks and talk, we went to his family’s house. I didn’t want to stay in a hotel. His mother wouldn’t let me anyway.

  We’d planned that John Haase was going to come out to Turkey on this occasion. It was someone’s idea so that we could make the final arrangements for the 111-kilo run to Paris. And also to bring him a bit closer into the organisation, to build a bit more trust and so he could have a bit of a holiday over there, comped by us to let him know that we respected him. But all the work had been done for Paris, so it wasn’t really necessary. I didn’t like this trip one bit because I thought it was too soon and there was something about John that I didn’t trust. I had sensed a lot in John’s eyes at meets in the Black Horse pub and what I’d sensed didn’t please me. Ben I’d sussed on our very first meet. He loved to talk and loved to boast. He’d say too much. If he was saying all this stuff to us, God knows what he was saying to other people. So I just wanted to take things step by step. But it was one of them. I had to go along with it out of respect for my seniors and be diplomatic, which was a great strength of mine. We had to make the best of it, especially security-wise. Haase was going to bring his girlfriend Debbie Dillon so that he would look like a man on holiday to Turkey with his girl. He was also coming in on a false passport. They were arriving on 17 July. The following morning, me and Vulcan drove to Kaya’s house. John Haase was flying to Turkey, to Dalaman airport, which was far away from Istanbul, and I was to pick them up on arrival. Kaya gave me three bodyguards, a vest and a gun. I told him I didn’t need anything and that I would be going on my own by plane. I wanted to be low-key. I didn’t want to attract unwanted attention and could move a lot faster on my own. I booked a flight and departed for Dalaman airport the same day. That was because John and Debbie would be flying in the next day – in the afternoon.

  I booked into a little hotel in Dalyan. Dalyan is a small tourist town 40 mins’ drive from Dalaman airport. It was such a peaceful place; I felt so relaxed. I didn’t want to go anywhere. It had lots of little narrow streets full of bars and cafés and restaurants. I’d have loved to live there but it wasn’t to be because of work.

  The next day, I went to Dalaman and waited for John and Debbie. The plane was on time. If I remember rightly, they flew in from Newcastle, well away from Liverpool. They had a few bags with them. We greeted each other then went to book our connections to Istanbul. The next flight was over four hours away. I paid for the tickets. I noticed John’s passport was in the name of John Williams. We walked out of the airport and took a taxi to Dalyan. When we arrived, I took them to a little restaurant and had the table covered with everything, from chicken to fish salads to mezze to drinks, the lot. It was our hospitality. Everything from now on would be paid for by us. After the meal, I took John and Debbie to a place I can only describe as paradise. That’s exactly what John said it was. ‘I could live here’ is what John said. They were his very words. The water lapping at their feet. The reeds growing out of it. Birds and ducks, and right opposite, the mountains with caves carved into them. They were very historic and one of Turkey’s wonders. We sat there for a few hours drinking raki. Debbie didn’t want to go. None of us wanted to leave but graft comes first over play. [There is no suggestion that Debbie knew of Haase’s involvement in drug dealing.] We got a taxi back to Dalaman airport and flew to Istanbul. Debbie was pissed and fell asleep as soon as we boarded. We landed in Istanbul about an hour later and was picked up by another of Kaya’s younger brothers. We had a lot of security around us but made sure John didn’t notice it. I didn’t like the reason as to why John came over in the first place and I was determined to stop important things – like him meeting Kaya or The Vulcan over there – from going ahead. I also wasn’t going to let John get too close, to see too much. John was supposed to see things I didn’t want him to. That wasn’t my intention, so part of the reason for the security was to cordon John off a bit. In my opinion, he was being trusted too much too soon and I didn’t like it.

  We got to the Istanbul Hilton and booked them into the best suite looking over the Bosphorus. John went into the room and I went and saw Kaya. I told him where John was and that I’d made sure he was staying in Istanbul for three days. I explained to Kaya that I didn’t like what was going on and put a little doubt in his head as to what he was doing, to make him think again and think carefully. In my mind, I didn’t want John and Kaya meeting over in Turkey. To do that, he would have to get in touch with me. I just wanted John to relax and leave the business to us. For the next three days, John had been trying to get in touch with me but I was in Tarsus, the city of my birth. I was there seeing my family. John didn’t see Kaya and after three days left with Debbie for a holiday resort called Marmaris. I was so happy that nothing had gone ahead. It soon dawned on Kaya as well that too much was happening too soon. He was happy, as was The Vulcan, that we’d slowed things down a bit. I was the most trusted man and I wasn’t about to let John and Ben know or see too much. I was meant to be doing my job properly or not at all.

  After seeing my family, I flew back to Istanbul, stayed the night then flew back to London on my own. I remember when I got back, we had meetings with Haase to finalise transport. We had been Haase’s single supplier for ages by then. There’d been a good relationship for 18 months. But I began not to trust Haase around then. It was just a feeling that came over me at Watford Gap, summer of 1993. It was six months after I started working with them and we had a meet at a Watford Gap service station to discuss transport. I just didn’t like the look of him. I told Yilmaz, but I was a kid to him and I didn’t have the clout to take it further; I forgot about it.

  One afternoon, I got home and my girl, who incidentally was Kaya’s sister, said Kaya had phoned from Turkey and left a message. I looked at the piece of paper. It had a French address on it. It was a hotel in Paris and I was to be there the next morning. So I got on the phone and booked a seat on the Seacat, the hovercraft over the Channel. I intended to drive there. I arrived in Calais around two o’clock in the early hours and drove straight to Paris. I remember the dustbin lorries picking up the rubbish off the streets and it was starting to get light. I didn’t know my way around Paris so I asked the bin men if they could direct me to the hotel Kaya was staying in. This was a stroke of luck because I was about four or five streets away. I found it with no problems. Kaya was staying at the hotel under a moody name. When I got there, he was already in the lobby waiting for me. We shook hands, walked a short distance to the car and drove out of Paris. En route, he told me what was going on. There was 111 kilos on its way from Turkey. It was in a coach with a troupe of Turkish folk-singers travelling on holiday in the south of France. On the way, we were phoning Turkey to ask for progress reports as to the whereabouts of the coach, its number plate, colour, make and model. We were to make contact with the coach when it reached the Eiffel Tower.

  We got to the tower early, had something to eat and walked about a bit. We phoned Turkey and got a time to meet: three o’clock. We walked around the shops to buy some extra-strong bags for the gear. We found a luggage shop and bought four strong sports bags. We put them in the car and went to meet the coach. The driver was drinking tea. We asked him if he had the gear ready because me and Kaya were ready to take it then. The d
river thought we were mad, but sometimes it’s better to do things in the open, unexpected, as though we were not doing anything wrong. We had a talk and decided to compromise and follow the driver to the south of France. So we set off in the BMW, following the coach but always staying three or four cars behind. It was hard because of the amount of people on it. Not all, but a few people had seen us when we pulled into a petrol station. I informed Kaya that I thought a few of them were on to us and that we’d have to pull back a bit more. We drove on. It was getting dark. It seemed like the coach had taken a few wrong turns. We were driving through a lot of small towns and villages.

  The coach eventually stopped in a narrow road. Trees lined both sides. I pulled the car into a little lane. Me and Kaya took it in turns taking a piss and keeping an eye on the coach. Suddenly the coach started moving and we jumped into the car and slowly followed. It was mad because there was no other cars on the road except the coach and us. When we came to a roundabout, we came to a sudden stop. I thought, ‘Fuck!’ And put my foot down and shot past the coach. We got a few stares. Then I stopped the car and watched the coach for a few minutes. A few fellas had got out and were looking at a map. They were obviously lost and looking to find the way to go. We waited for a while then started to drive towards the coach. Some of the guys put their hands out to stop us but we shot past them. It was funny because they were swearing at me and Kaya in Turkish. We had English number plates and they didn’t know we were Turkish.