Jesus Ruiz-Henao is known as “Great Britain’s Pablo Escobar”. During the nineties and early 2000s, the in Colombian crime Overlord died the largest drug ring in the United Kingdom, so that our streets flooded with more than £ 1 billion cocaine.
During that time, the consumption of the medicine in this country quadrupled. Apart from the US, Britain now takes more of it than any other nation in the world -and Jesus is the crime boss behind this cocaine explosion. His daring run ended in 2006 when he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for conspiracy to deliver drugs and money laundering.
At the height of his criminal activities, he ran a 50-person gang, with an estimated 20,000 agents money laundering in Colombia.
He is now in an American penitentiary after extradition from Colombia, awaiting a further drug test.
But how on earth did Jesus become the greatest drug dealer in the history of the UK and did it get away with his gigantic criminal undertaking for so long?
The answer is that he had the perfect coverage. He was a TFL BUS driver in Hendon, Noord -Londen. Protection of his trade on route 134, he hid in sight.
Now, as the former drugs Baron gives his first television interview in the new documentary The Bus Driver: Britain’s Cocaine King, two of the police officers who are responsible for bringing Jesus to the judge have spoken with the Sunday Express about their five-year search to arrest him.
Former detective sergeant Ian Floyd and former DS Steve Lear, both now retired from the Force, were part of the greatest British police operation ever (outside of terrorist investigations) to tie Jesus.
Five surveillance teams and more than a hundred officers were involved.
“He deliberately tried not to attract attention, he was not flashing,” says Ian.
“He wasn’t in your face there, which are many drug dealers.”
To keep his lucrative operation under the radar, Jesus shuns a glitan luxury car in favor of a definitely non -glamorous Honda Civic. Apart from driving buses, he also worked as a cleaner and as a dishwasher.
Speaking from his high -protected cell in Bogota, Colombia, before his recent move to the US, Jesus says that he had to keep his “day task” hidden as a drug king pin.
“I wanted to be invisible,” he says. “Most people were arrested because someone close to them saved them.
“I had to keep it secret because it is not just the police – criminals all over the world want to take the money from you.”
He grew up one of the 10 brothers and sisters in rural poverty in a house without electricity in the remote mountains of Colombia.
The turning point in his life came when he visited the city of Medellin on one Christmas and then under the control of drug cartels.
Escobar, who was a lot of hemispheres for the locals, issued gifts to poor children and gave the young Jesus a bicycle.
“It was the first bike I had in my life, and I got it from Pablo Escobar,” the 63-year-old recalls.
“I thought:” He has the power, the money. I want to be so powerful. I want everything “.”
He decided to imitate his youth hero and traveled to Sicily in 1982 to convince the Mafia to make him traffic cocaine for them.
After he had lost some drugs and ended up because of the money from the Colombian cartels, they hired a hit to kill him.
He was shot in the stomach with a machine gun, but survived in a wonderful way.
“I realized that if I didn’t move to the UK, I was already dead,” he says.
He arrived in London in 1986 and started running. But seduced by larger financial rewards, he eventually returned to his drug trafficking roots.
“You get greedy, you want more because it is easy money,” he now confesses.
“You say:” It’s too easy to become £ 1 million. If it is so easy to become £ 1 million, I now want to get £ 10 million. “
Jesus always kept a low profile and explained his extreme wealth to family members by saying that he had won a fortune in a “Spot The Ball” match.
By the early 2000s, he worked for the ruthless Norte del Valle Cartel, who were so ridiculously rich that they had their own fleet of submarines.
He made a daily profit of £ 4 million and owned five “Stashhuizen” in the UK. At a certain point in his central London flat in Russell Square, he kept £ 42 million cash in cash. The stack of banknotes was 1.5 m high.
Jesus came up with more and more ingenious ways to smuggle cocaine to the UK and resolve it in the plastic of suitcases to prevent detection. He also chose chewing gum or at ice when passing on potentially incriminating information. He increasingly believed himself unassailable by the police. “I thought,” They never stopped me, “he recalls.
“I was a boy from the mountains of Colombia without good education, but I was smarter than she.”
But in 2002 the with a lot was on him. He blundered after he was his most important money launderer, Fernando Carranza Reyes, that he was not aware that he was in fact the drug king pin of their illegal operation.
Jesus now calls it, “my biggest mistake.”
Fernando was arrested in September 2003 as part of a massive police drug ring.
He had tens of thousands of pounds in his safe in La Gran Colombia, Jesus’ Money Transfer Office in North Londs.
Officers also grabbed thousands of pays slips that showed that Jesus had been washed at least £ 17 million in one year by that office. In general, £ 3.5 million were recovered in cash and 645 kg of cocaine.
Fernando then played super grass and provided evidence that Jesus and 33 fellow samenwiers helped. The money washer is now in witness protection.
Steve notes: “Jesus was good, but he was unlucky that he was standing up against us.”
Ian adds: “He was a manipulator. Everyone in his position does what they do for their own advantage. If he now tries to portray himself as the friendly, nice drug dealer, there is a much bigger story behind it.
“He may not have been that violent drug dealer, but he was just as well a criminal – he used people for his own purposes.”
Two of the brothers of Jesus died as a result of his criminal activities.
“He is very selfish,” Ian continues. “He didn’t really care about other people. Self -preservation is the company here.
“There are victims good because of this drug trade system. It is not just about the victims who die because of drugs.
“Further down people committed burglaries, street robberies and thefts.
“There is violence between drug gangs. This is all the result of drug trafficking.”
He shakes his head. “It has a huge impact on people’s lives.
“Jesus could say,” Oh, well, I’m just a requirement, “but it causes great suffering for thousands of people.”
At the height of Jesus’ criminal Rijk-1996 to 1999-to-1999 cocaine-related deaths in the UK four and a half times.
Nowadays, the cocaic market in the UK is worth an estimated £ 4 billion a year.
Ron Chepesiuk, author of Jesus’ biography, the real Lord Big, said: “Great -Britain has a cocaine epidemic. Jesus is largely responsible. He was the real Mr Big.”
What would the police officers say to Jesus if they saw him today? “Was it worth it?” Ian answers. “Yes, you had five years of good life and spent a lot of money.
“But at the end of the day you will have 20 or 30 years not to see your family and you have lost your freedom.”
The detectives can certainly be very happy with their very successful research. “I felt great relief and really proud,” says Steve. “That’s why you share, right? That’s why you do this work. All the time all those efforts finally brings you something. It was a good feeling.”
He is hopeful, viewers will learn something from looking at the documentary.
“I showed it to my sons on 13 and 17 years old – at the end one said:” It’s not worth it “.
“Jesus has been in prison since 2003. It is now 2025 and he probably doesn’t go out because he is now in America. It is not a crime without victims.
“So if you can show people that this is not worth it, then that’s great.”
Ian nods in accordance: “I hope people see that it doesn’t matter how big you are, law enforcement will come after you and hopefully will be successful.” Even if you have your own submarine? “Yes, even then!”
Jesus certainly regrets what He did.
Looking back on his lucrative but destructive career, he reflects in the documentary: “I am not proud. At the end of the day I am a loser like many people who go into this company.” Given the same chance, he says he would make a different choice.
“Washing in a restaurant or playing Mr Big again? I would choose to wash.”
He does not mention the bus.
● The bus driver: the British cocaine foring now flows at Discovery+
#wheels #British #bus #driving #Pablo #Escobar