How detectives found a cocaine kingpin hiding in Thailand

Millions of pounds worth of drugs, a luxury pad in the Far East and a new life as a prizefighting boxer.

Ben Ransome, 29, was living the archetypal lifestyle of a cocaine kingpin who thought he had evaded the law.

No wonder Det Insp Yoni Adler and his team celebrated as they brought the curtain down on a Hollywood-style plot.

Ransome, from Wickford, was jailed for 14 years at Basildon Crown Court on Tuesday after one of Essex Police's biggest ever drugs investigations.

How did the detectives manage to find him?

Ransome first entered the police's radar in 2021, when it became clear he was distributing drugs on a large scale across south-east England.

Surveillance at his home in Ethelred Gardens soon painted a blatant picture of the operation.

Officers watched as Ransome, armed with a heavy bag, left the property and went to meet Charlie Lancaster, one of his associates, at Wickford railway station in February 2022.

When police stopped Lancaster, 42, as he drove away from the meeting, he said of his van: "There is some stuff in there."

That "stuff" was £900,000 worth of cocaine, and Lancaster, from Harlow, was later jailed for six years.

"That arrest made him aware the police may potentially be looking at him," Det Insp Adler said of Ransome.

"He thought the net might be closing in on him," he added.

Ransome fled to Malaga in Spain and then, months later, took refuge in Thailand.

In the meantime, police were rounding up members of the drugs network he oversaw one by one.

When one member was stopped on the M11 and asked what was in his car boot, he answered: "Drugs - a lot. Cocaine."

The police investigation found he was a courier who handled £20m of drugs in a single month - and he was regularly on Ransome's payroll.

A mother and son duo were also jailed for conspiring to sell Ransome's drugs, which they stashed at their house in Rayleigh.

In just a snapshot of the scale of the operation, one of Ransome's couriers moved more than 200kg (31st) of cocaine in under two months, according to Essex Police.

Another had delivered Ransome's drugs from Essex to dealers in Birmingham, Southampton and Sheerness, Kent, all in one day.

"We know the people he supplied were dangerous," Det Insp Adler told the BBC.

More than £1m in cash and 20 firearms were seized during his team's investigation, which led to 25 arrests.

Many of those arrests had been people who were seen by police to visit Ransome's home in Wickford and leave with large bags.

Meanwhile, he was continuing to co-ordinate the operation from Thailand - paying couriers to collect the drugs and distribute them for him.

It was when Ransome withdrew money in Thailand for the first time that police realised where their man was.

Essex Police tipped off the Royal Thai Police, who stalked the fugitive to verify his identity and soon realised he was doing monthly "visa runs" - whereby he was briefly leaving the country and immediately returning to reset his visa clock, as a non-resident.

Det Insp Adler explained: "They were able to keep quite close control over him.

"When the judicial process was done and we were ready to press the button and go and get him, they increased their surveillance on him."

The Royal Thai Police's surveillance led detectives to find that Ransome was living in a luxury apartment on the island of Phuket and trying to reinvent himself as a prizefighting boxer under the alias "Billy Roberts".

Videos of his fights could be found and viewed on YouTube.

"One thing experience tells me is drug dealers tend to be pretty arrogant individuals," Det Insp Adler continued.

"He showed a lot of arrogance in thinking we weren't looking for him or weren't after him.

"And he was obviously confident enough in that to parade himself on YouTube as a boxer," he added.

Thai Police swooped in on Ransome on 2 September 2024 as he left a restaurant.

"He certainly wasn't expecting to get his collar felt at that particular moment," Det Insp Adler continued.

The drug dealer was held in Thailand's Bang Kwang Central Prison for almost a year, which was described by his barrister in court as "one of the world's most infamous prisons".

He was then extradited to the UK in July.

"We were over the moon," added Det Insp Adler, whose team often worked 16-hour days to catch Ransome.

"We'd been chasing him under extradition for two years nearly, so it's the culmination of lots of hard work, blood, sweat and tears."

Ransome went on to admit conspiracy to supply ketamine and cocaine, supplying cocaine and possession of criminal property in September 2025 at Basildon Crown Court.

Appearing at the same court on Tuesday, he was jailed for 14 years.

Det Insp Adler said: "This has been the biggest drugs operation Essex Police has ever run - and the most successful one.

"It really has been a lot of hard work and it's certainly one to look back on fondly."

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