Tuesday, 2 December 2008

Orville Cunningham, aged 42, was arrested earlier this year after the discovery of a large quantity of drugs, cash and UK passports

Orville Cunningham, aged 42, was arrested earlier this year after the discovery of a large quantity of drugs, cash and UK passports at a house in Lewisham. Two Jamaican passports under the names of Orville Cunningham and Douglas Anderson were also found hidden in locked suitcases, as well as correspondence under the name of Douglas Moon. Police found out that Cunningham, Anderson and Moon were the same person and he was traced to Wricklemarsh Road in Blackheath. In May police raided the property, which was Cunningham’s home address, and seized bags containing 3.14kg of crack cocaine, 1.378kg of heroin and 254g of cocaine, as well as £30,631.21 in cash.
Officers also found two bags containing around £42,810 in cash and crack cocaine in the central console of a Lexus car. Cash amounting to £183,420 was also found in the boot of another vehicle nearby. Cunningham admitted to police he had been dealing £20,000 of illegal drugs a day since February 2007, but said he had been forced to do it due to threats of violence. Although he confessed he had bought a passport in the name of Douglas Anderson from a Nigerian, Cunningham would not explain to police why he had it in his possession. Cunningham pleaded guilty in July to four charges of possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply, one charge of possessing a false passport and two charges of possessing criminal property amounting to £256,697.21 in cash. At Woolwich Crown Court on Friday (November 28) he was sentenced to nine years in jail Detective Inspector Robert Boggon said: “It appears Cunningham was involved in a criminal network which laundered money and supplied street drug dealers, thus feeding gang and serious youth violence and knife-enabled crime. “We are continuing to investigate whether he has any other financial assets from his criminal activities that should be seized in the future."

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