Masseuse who offered drugs and sex to men in Soho is jailed for six years

A masseuse who offered drugs and sex to men in Soho has been jailed for six years for dealing and possession of stun guns and false passports.

Flavien Cortes, 38, supplied large quantities of drugs and offered bondage-themed sexual services to men from his Wardour Street apartment.

Police seized bundles of cash amounting to £30,000, 40 bottles of gamma butyrolactone, several tasers, false passports and a variety of class A, B and C drugs.

Among the Class A drugs seized were MDMA, cocaine and a quantity of crystal meth believed to be in excess of 2kg.

Also found were 40 litres of GBL, a Class C drug which is a clear industrial cleaning liquid. GBL is used legitimately by commercial garages, but is also taken by some as a drug to reduce inhibitions and intensify sex. The MPS has previously linked the use of this drug to 61 deaths in London.

Cortes pleaded guilty prior to sentencing at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday via video link from prison to:

• Five counts of possession of class A with intent to supply
• Five counts of possession of class B with intent
• Four counts of possession of class C with intent, one count of possessing a disguised firearm, one count of possessing a prohibited firearm, one count of possessing criminal property, and
• Two counts of possession of an identity document with improper intention.

Detectives from one of the Met’s Specialist Crime proactive teams based in South London conducted a surveillance operation culminating in a search warrant executed at Cortes’ address on January 15 this year.

Another 48-year-old man from Islington was also arrested at the address after being found in possession of crystal meth and subsequently cautioned for possession of the Class A drug on January 16.

Officers searching the flat found large quantities of cash in vacuum sealed bags and the two taser-style firearms disguised as cattle prod and torch, as well as passports in different names. Officers also located a room in the flat designed to facilitate sexual activity with equipment used to record and share online sexual activity.

The search also uncovered a set of scales, and a clipboard with a rota of names – police suspect these may record details of individuals supplying drugs for Cortes.

When Cortes was initially interviewed, and again in court, he said the drugs all belonged to him and that he had been using them to self-medicate in order to ease pain caused by an illness he had been suffering.

He said the scales were to make sure he did not overdose and the notebook was to keep a record of his spending – and told officers that he had been working as a male escort to supplement his income.

Detective Inspector Allen Davis of Project Sagamore, the Met’s response to crime and vulnerability within the chemsex context, said: “The MPS recognises that crime in a Chemsex context is not an isolated issue of sexual offending or substance misuse.

“Chemsex-related vulnerability and offending are considerably under-reported, levels of complexity are vast, and the overwhelming nature of the scene can negatively impact on many aspects of a participant’s life.”