A "Premier League" cocaine kingpin from Liverpool fled the country after a café used as a base by international drugs brokers was bugged by Dutch police.
Former Crimestoppers 'most wanted' fugitive Michael Moogan, 37, today became the last British man sentenced in connection with a sting operation at the Café de Ketel in Rotterdam. The 'café' was the haunt of the shadowy 'Çamdere brothers', Turkish nationals who brokered major international drug deals.
A court heard today how the premises was not open to the public and only "known faces" could gain access via an intercom system. The café featured a secure inner area where some of Europe's highest level drugs traffickers could arrange to source huge quantities of Class A drugs from South American cartels.
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When it was eventually raided by the Dutch National Crime Squad in October 2013, officers found €319,000 in cash and a number of guns.
Moogan, originally from Croxteth but who was living in West Derby, spent eight years on the run after getting wind the National Crime Agency (NCA) were seeking his arrest. He was eventually collared in Dubai in 2021, where he had been using fake German identification under the name 'Michael Dwyer'.
At Manchester Crown Court today, nearly 10 years on from the raid at the Café de Ketel, Moogan was finally brought to justice after pleading guilty to evading the prohibition on the importation of cocaine at an earlier hearing. An earlier court appearance was told Moogan told his arresting officer: "You’re not going to have any trouble from me. I’m tired now. Get me up to Manny and get me in Cat A. I’m done now.”
Keith Sutton, prosecuting, told the court co-conspirator Robert Hamilton, now 71, from Hale in Manchester, met with the Çamdere brothers in early 2013, and vouched for Moogan and his father-in-law, Robert Gerard.
He said in conversations recorded by the Dutch police's covert listening devices, Hamilton told the brothers: "There were people who wanted to buy 60 to 80 kilos a month, all cash. He said the men had their own transport and had been doing it for ages. He said he could vouch for the father, Robert Gerard. The father was ok."
Mr Sutton told the court the brothers agreed to a meeting with Moogan and Gerard and the two men went for a series of talks at the Café de Ketel, where they were recorded haggling over the price of kilo bricks of cocaine.
On one occasion Moogan discussed a €600,000 payment with the brothers, and on another told them he needed 20 kilos "by Friday". The group used a "sophisticated" payment system involving Iraqi nationals based in the UK.
Moogan told the brothers they "did not need credit" and could pay for the cocaine shipments up front, and also recommended using encrypted Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) devices to communicate in secret. In another conversation, he described how he could smuggle cocaine into the UK himself via a set-up in Barcelona.
Mr Sutton described the "commercial scale" supply of cocaine as Moogan and Gerard's "business". He said the Crown's case was based on the importation of 62kgs of cocaine.
The court heard that while Hamilton was picked up around the time of the raid on the café, 57-year-old Gerard went on the run before handing himself in to police in 2016, telling officers he couldn't handle the pressure of life as a fugitive. He was jailed for 14 years in 2017, while Hamilton was sentenced to eight years in 2014.
After a lengthy extradition process, Moogan was flown back to the UK on July 4 last year and detained. He pleaded guilty in November.
The court heard despite the sophisticated level of offending he had no previous convictions.
Nigel Power, KC, defending, told the court: "I don't want to suggest this is anything other than serious, and I don't want to suggest it is a completely simple sentencing exercise, but so far as secure communications and other matters of concern about the sophistication of this offending, the facts are far from unique at this level of offending."
Mr Power said his client had no previous convictions and in his years on the run had committed no further offences. He said Moogan's mum, who attended court to support him, was in poor health and he was also supported by a partner, the mother of his children.
He said Moogan had completed victim awareness courses while on remand in custody and added his family situation meant Moogan would "ensure there was no repeat" of his offending in future.
Judge Paul Lawton, passing sentence, told Moogan: "You are a man of hitherto good character. You have chosen to enter the world of crime at Premier League level. You knew you were flooding the UK with cocaine and in doing so enabling other organised crime groups to ply their trade with all its inherent violence and associated criminality."
Judge Lawton said he had taken into account Moogan's guilty pleas and previous good character. He sentenced Moogan to 12 years in prison, minus 696 days spent behind bars on remand in Dubai and the UK. Moogan will be forced to serve half of that period in custody before being released on licence.
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