Briton jailed for role in plot 'to flood' US with North Korean methamphetamine

A stock photo of rocks of crystal meth
A stock photo of rocks of crystal meth Credit: Alamy

A British man was sentenced to 15 years in a US prison on Friday for his role in an international conspiracy to import 220 pounds of North Korean methamphetamine into the United States.

Scott Stammers, 47, who grew up in Hong Kong, was one of five defendants arrested in Phuket, Thailand, in September 2013 on suspicion of preparing to ship the drugs by boat.

Prosecutors said their plan would have flooded the US with methamphetamine.

Gang members were arrested in the tourist destination of Phuket, Thailand
Gang members were arrested in the tourist destination of Phuket, Thailand

They were part of a gang that spanned Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines and boasted of holding a monopoly on methamphetamine produced in the reclusive state of North Korea.

But unknown to them, their buyers were actually agents working hand in hand with the US Drug Enforcement Administration sting, which began with the arrest in Liberia of Paul Le Roux, the head of a drug and weapons running enterprise who became a government informant.

Stammers pleaded guilty to conspiracy in August 2015 and was sentenced in New York on Friday by US Federal Judge Andrew Carter to 181 months in prison, after which he will be deported.

Dressed in khaki trousers and an olive top, Stammers - whose LinkedIn profile describes him as operations director of  a security firm in Bangkok - declined an opportunity to address the New York court.

"No. I'm fine, thank you very much sir," he told the judge.

American prosecutors had sought a sentence of up to 30 years, but the judge cited mitigating factors that included the fact that Stammers has two children and was held in harsh conditions in Thailand before being extradited to America.

Stammers' role was to provide security, transportation and storage for the methamphetamine once it arrived in Thailand, according to court documents.

He was to arrange for the shipment to be taken to a warehouse, weighed, re-packaged and delivered to a marina in Thailand where it would be transferred to a ship bound for the US. 

Another defendant, Adrian Valkovic, was Sergeant-at-Arms of the Outlaw Motorcycle Club. His role was to be “ground commander”, according to court documents, supervising an armed crew of gang members who were to provide security for the operation.

Preet Bharara, Manhattan US Attorney, said: “Thanks to the work of the DEA and the cooperation of law enforcement partners around the world, including in Thailand, Liberia and Romania, Stammers’s scheme ended, not with the North Korean methamphetamine flooding American streets as he had intended, but rather with a guilty plea in a Manhattan federal court.”

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