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By JENNIFER LIBERTO, Times Staff WriterIt started when one told agents of nuclear material for sale and suggested using cocaine profits for the purchase.
TAMPA - Four men who allegedly planned to buy $8-million in cocaine for British organized crime families were recently extradited to Tampa in a federal drug sting.
Christopher Benbow, 61, who has a home in Miami and Estonia, Patrick Jenkins, 39, Anthony Jones, 41, and Peter Davidson, 46, all of England, were extradited to Tampa from May to July.
All four have pleaded not guilty to charges of possessing with intent to distribute at least 5 kilograms of cocaine, according to federal records filed by assistant U.S. attorney Anthony Porcelli.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Scriven unsealed a complaint late Wednesday, revealing a glimpse at a complex drug sting that began in December 2003. Negotiations reportedly spanned the globe, from Tampa's Harbour Island Wyndham Hotel to the Grand Place in Brugge, Belgium.
Jones and Jenkins are accused of working together to buy about $8-million worth of cocaine, 1,250 to 2,000 kilograms, on behalf of two organized crime families, according to the federal complaint. Benbow acted as the broker, negotiating the sale between the sellers - federal agents - and potential buyer representatives Jones and Jenkins, the complaint states.
In early April 2004, Jenkins and Jones planned to exchange euros for dollars with the expectation that the cocaine would be delivered to a warehouse in the Netherlands, the complaint alleges. Benbow, Jenkins, Jones and Davidson, reportedly a Jones colleagu, were arrested later that month.
Defense attorney John Fitzgibbons, who is representing Jenkins, declined to comment. Jones' Houston attorney didn't return calls.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration first started looking into the case in December 2003, when Benbow offered to be a broker for some $220-million worth of a radioactive metal supposedly up for sale, according to the complaint.
Benbow allegedly told agents working with the federal government that he knew former Russian KGB agents who had 9 kilograms of Strontium-90, which can be used to construct a dirty bomb. Benbow said the Russians were negotiating to sell the metal to a group in Afghanistan, according to the federal complaint.
In January 2004, Benbow approached the same agents and suggested they could raise the cash necessary to buy the radioactive metal by selling cocaine to Jones, a member of the notorious "Adams crime family" of Great Britain, according to the complaint. The British National Crime Squad has been investigating the family for at least a decade, according to the complaint.
A fifth alleged conspirator, David Tucker, 60, also of England, also has been formally charged by a grand jury but has yet to be arrested, said Lisa Alfonso, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshals Service. Tucker is Jones' stepfather and also a member of the Adams family under British investigation, according to the complaint.
Benbow, Jenkins and Davidson were held without bail in a Hillsborough County jail. It was unclear Thursday where Jones was being held.