Rise & fall of ‘The Milkman’ – Britain’s flashest drug kingpin who ‘always delivered’… until a freak storm spelled doom

CHRISTENED The Milkman by his underworld cronies because “he always delivered”, cocaine Mr Big Brian Brendan Wright seemed untouchable. Wright – who laundered his smuggling profits through huge punts on horse races – paid no tax, had no national insurance number or credit cards. Brian Wright built up his drugs empire in the 1990s dealing directly with Colombian cartels Wright was dubbed ‘The Milkman’ by pals because he ‘always delivered’ Credit: PA Yet his cash paid for a box at Royal Ascot, a Chelsea Harbour apartment, nights out at elite nightclub Tramp and allowed him to mix with the rich and famous. Then, one freakishly stormy night in September 1996, the seeds of his downfall were sown. Battered by Atlantic waves and a force-nine gale, a 40ft Caribbean trawler called Sea Mist sought haven in Cork’s harbour in south east Ireland. A routine search of the vessel unearthed 599kg of pure cocaine with a street value of £80 million hidden inside a dumb-waiter shaft. This was one delivery The Milkman wouldn’t be making. It was the start of a decade-long hunt for the mastermind behind the huge haul, Brian Brendan Wright. Now, a BBC radio documentary has shone a light on the remarkable cocaine kingpin, the destruction left in his wake and how he was eventually snared by Customs investigators. Former HM Customs and Excise officer Barry Clarke tells the six-part podcast: “I don’t know if he’s passed any exams, but you know what? He’s got that streetwise, street sense. He’s a sharp individual. “And it was clear that he had a very strong reputation as a high-class criminal, someone who was very careful in the way he operated. He had a strong reputation within UK criminality.” So who was The Milkman? And why did it take so long to catch a man behind the most successful cocaine smuggling gang then plying its trade in Britain? Wright was born in Cork in 1947 and moved to Kilburn, the heart of Irish London, when he was 12. Soon he was running bets for workers on building sites and would end up in a borstal youth detention centre. Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning jockey Graham Bradley admitted taking money and gifts from Wright in exchange for ‘very privileged information’ Credit: Doug Seeburg – The Sun Bradley would say at the time he ‘never had a better friend’ than Wright Credit: PA:Press Association Wright went on to work at a Mayfair casino, boasting that even in his twenties he was winning £50,000 a day. Customs believed that his contacts in the gambling world pathed the way for his entry into drug smuggling circles. A key contact was a Brazilian who introduced him to Colombian cartels that dominate the cocaine trade. The South Americans supplied a family business that included both Wright’s son Brian Junior and his former son-in-law. Wright’s mob had supply networks in Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Panama and shipped cocaine across the Atlantic with a fleet of six yachts. They loaded up with cocaine off the Venezuela coast and sailed across the Atlantic, calling up reception boats moored in marinas along the Devon and Dorset coast. Customs officers said that three tonnes of cocaine were delivered between 1996 and 1998. One yacht skipper was paid £1m per boatload and the small boats who picked up the drugs off the British coast received £75,000 for one night’s work. Wright landed a monster £1m punt on the winner of the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket Credit: PA:Press Association The ‘Milkman’ was based in a luxury Chelsea Harbour apartment while in London Credit: Alamy In 2007, Roy Clark, head of criminal investigations for Revenue & Customs, described Wright’s gang as “probably the most sophisticated and successful global cocaine trafficking organisation ever to target the UK”. Wright, also nicknamed Uncle, laundered his vast profits through horse racing, boasting that he cleared £400,000 a year in betting coups. His monster gambles were so successful that bookies refused to take his cash. Instead, he assembled a team of 50 punters to bet for him on race courses. It was a system that saw Wright land a monster £1m punt on the winner of the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. Afterwards, he treated his betting team to a new car each. The high roller rented apartments in Chelsea for £20,000 a month and named his £2m Spanish villa El Lechero – meaning the milkman in Spanish. Based in a luxury Chelsea Harbour apartment while in London, he took his meals at the nearby five-star Conrad Hotel, using a table in its lounge as his office. Wright rubbed shoulders with celebrities including Frank Sinatra, Clint Eastwood and Jerry Hall and became godfather to one of his friend comedian Jim Davidson’s children. Wright rubbed shoulders with the top celebrities at the time, including Frank Sinatra Credit: Getty Wright became godfather to one of his friend Jim Davidson’s children Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd Davidson described first meeting the Milkman at a racetrack in the early Eighties: “I was in the bar at Kempton, and this little man called Jimmy the One come hobbling over and said, ‘You want to know anything about betting, son, come and meet Brian’.” The comic said of Wright: “Out would come a carrier bag and there’d be a loaf of bread of £50 notes in it. He’d cut off a lump and say to Jimmy the One, ‘Go and put that on’.” The Milkman lived by cash alone, often leaving in the hands of trusted friends. One kept £500,000 in his loft. Wright would also entertain friends like Great Train Robber Charlie Wilson and the London gangster Roy Adkins in private boxes at Ascot and Newmarket. The flamboyant smuggler liked to lavish cash and nights out on jockeys in the hope that they would supply him with information that would help pull off big gambles. Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning jockey Graham Bradley – who died last month – admitted taking money and gifts from Wright in exchange for “very privileged information” on races. Bradley would say at the time he “never had a better friend” than Wright, adding: “Yes, he had money but he also had charisma and money can’t buy that.” A source told The Sun: “Wright was known as Uncle in racing circles rather than The Milkman and was a well-liked guy. No one knew he was a cocaine smuggler.” There were also accusations from an ex jockey called Dermot Browne that he doped 23 horses in 1990 for Wright. Nicknamed the Needleman, Browne injected the animals with syringes full of fast-acting sedatives to ensure they didn’t win. Wright denied the allegations and dismissed Browne as a “serial fantasist”. Then the Sea Mist’s cocaine haul was uncovered. Phone records linked the smuggling operation to Wright and Customs were on his tail. Kevin Hanley, one of Wright’s henchmen, was arrested in London with £2 million-worth of the drug in the back of his van Credit: Central News Wright was granted parole from the maximum-security HMP Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire after serving just 15 years Credit: PA Crew members of the trawler – acquitted in court – were filmed meeting Wright in Chelsea Harbour. Yet efforts to catch Wright’s gang red-handed as they smuggled drugs across the Atlantic proved elusive. Then, in November 1998 the Metropolitan Police received an anonymous tip that one of Wright’s henchmen was delivering cocaine to dealers. Kevin Hanley was arrested in London with £2 million-worth of the drug in the back of his van. Months later members of Wright’s syndicate were arrested and a further £61 million worth of cocaine seized from a farm in Laleham, Middlesex, and a lock up garage in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. Wright went on the run, heading to Sotogrande on the Costa del Sol and then to northern Cyprus where he lived a life of luxury. When the Turkish authorities agreed to his deportation, Wright fled back to Spain where he was arrested by police in 2005. Back in Britain, gambler Wright offered a Customs officer an extraordinary bet of £1m to £1 that he would never stand trial. The wager was declined. In 2007 Wright stood trial. In the public gallery was Clare Campbell whose journalist brother Bill Frost died aged 50 as a result of his cocaine addiction. Ex BBC man Bill – who was also The Times’ Chief Reporter – had been friends with Wright’s righthand man Kevin Hanley and became embroiled in the drugs underworld. Clare – also a journalist – told the BBC podcast: “It was terrible what happened to my brother. He was always so handsome and talented, a really admirable and brilliant journalist.” Describing how she bumped into Bill in the street as he battled a crack and cocaine habit, she revealed: “I didn’t recognise him. “He looked like a 6ft skeleton with his eyes on stalks. He was like a demon. “I know Brian Brendan Wright didn’t take a gun out and shoot my brother, but when I saw him in the dock I did feel anger against someone to whom a death from cocaine is nothing and who makes his living out of other people’s misery.” Found guilty of running an international cocaine smuggling empire, Wright was sentenced to 30 years behind bars. A model prisoner, in April, 2020, he was granted parole from the maximum-security HMP Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire after serving just 15 years. Now 79, he is said to live in London. Wright declined to take part in the podcast. Those who have seen the old man say it’s difficult to comprehend that he was once horse racing’s cocaine godfather. The BBC Radio 5 Live podcast Gangster: The Story of the Milkman is available on BBC Sounds now.