Archangelo Power secures acquittal of “hide builder” in serious organised crime prosecution

Following a 6-week trial at Croydon Crown Court, Archangelo Power secured the unanimous acquittal of his client, who was charged with two counts of assisting an organised crime group pursuant to s46 of the Serious Crime Act.

Archangelo’s client was alleged to have been assisting a serious organised crime group as a “hide builder” responsible for the fitting sophisticated hidden compartments (“hides”) to cars for the purpose of smuggling and supply of class A drugs, cash and/or firearms.  The prosecution relied on surveillance evidence and covert recordings of the “hides” being fitted to no fewer than 32 cars, all of which were subsequently stopped by Police forces, with searches of the vehicles revealing large quantities of drugs (both Class A & B), cash and drug dealing paraphernalia in the “hides”.  The prosecution also relied on Encrochat telephone evidence and messages extracted from servers.

Archangelo was instructed by Linas Bajorunas of Tuckers Solicitors