Three South Londoners convicted of shipping £3.5m of crystal meth to Australia

Two men and a woman have been convicted of drug trafficking offences after using the cargo industry to send 24kgs of crystal meth – worth £3.5m – to Australia.

Yvonne Stewart, 51, from Croydon, Kevin Filkins, 52, from Sevenoaks and Robert Hamilton, 51, from Orpington were convicted for exporting Class A drugs after a trial today at Croydon Crown Court.

The trio were arrested in April 2022 by the Organised Crime Partnership – made up of officers from the National Crime Agency and The Met – after the Australian Border Force and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) found a shipment of crystal meth had been sent from Croydon on June 25, 2021.

CCTV images identified Stewart, who was working in the cargo sector. The images also captured a man, now identified as Filkins, sending a shipment labelled ‘two glass Buddhas’ to New South Wales, Australia.

Stewart was responsible for the security inspection of the item. However, when the shipment arrived in Australia, it was discovered the drugs had not been concealed inside, meaning she had not properly checked the contents.

Phone records showed that, at key times, Stewart had been on the phone to Hamilton, who in turn had been in touch with Filkins.

Filkins’ phone and vehicles were tracked from his home address to the the cargo centre the same morning, indicating he had driven the shipment to the cargo centre.

Investigators found that Filkins, Stewart and Hamilton had worked together to send two other shipments to Australia on June 2 and 24, 2021.

The three shipments were listed as sent by three individuals who the NCA found had their passports stolen.

Two were paid for using a debit card in Filkins’ name, and the third from a card registered to a person whose passport was stolen. This card, along with one of the stolen passports, were found in a search of Filkins’ home.

Hamilton was also convicted of possession with intent to supply a Class B drug and production of a Class B drug after a number of cannabis plants were found at his address on arrest.

They will all be sentenced at the same court on March 2.

Richard Smith, from the Organised Crime Partnership, said: “This group exploited Stewart’s inside knowledge of the cargo industry to get their illegal shipment to Australia. They believed that once the shipment had been security checked, the drugs should remain undetected until they reached the recipient.

“However, our work with the AFP has seen this organised crime group’s criminal supply chain dismantled. Our work will continue to target class A drugs supply, which fuels violence and exploitation in the UK and overseas.”

AFP London-based liaison officer Detective Sergeant Kristie Cressy said: “The AFP obtained intelligence during an Operation Ironside investigation in Australia about an organised crime syndicate allegedly operating in the UK and sending parcels of illicit drugs offshore. 

“We worked closely with our counterparts at the National Crime Agency to share intelligence that identified members of the syndicate operating in the UK and stopped their criminal ventures.”

Pictured top: Yvonne Stewart, Kevin Filkins and Robert Hamilton were convicted for drug trafficking (Picture: NCA)