Olympic Judo Fighter Jailed For Cocaine Dealing

Olympic judo star James Waithe has been charged for him implication in a ?50 million drug gang.

The forty-seven-year-old athlete, who had represented the Caribbean island of Barbados during the Olympics as well as England at the Commonwealth Games, was a member of a gang of drug dealers who sold cocaine valued at ?1 million every week.

Bristol Crown Court was the scene where Waithe received his conviction for conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Authorities discovered a veritable “cocaine factory” at the judoka’s Bristol flat, which also included guns, the Crown Court was told.

The drug bust stemmed from a burglary report at Waithe’s Highridge Green flat during which police found a 10-tonne hydraulic press as well as the white powder and mixing agents.

A deadly arsenal was also revealed including weapons such as handguns, rifles, stun grenades and ammunition.

Waithe previously claimed that despite being the owner of the apartment, he did not live there and was not in any way part of the illegal enterprise. Nevertheless, the athlete was found guilty of conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Waithe is still waiting for a verdict for six counts of firearm possession but has been declared not guilty of conspiracy to own an explosive substance.

Co-defendant sixty-three-year-old Robert Brooks received a not guilty verdict on six counts of firearm possession but was declared not guilty of charges of conspiracy to possess explosives, namely stun grenades. However, Brooks did admit to conspiracy to supply drugs.

Other co-accused Lawrence Weston, Luke Downes of Pevensey Walk, Grant Richmond of Long Cross and Craig Rodel of Wexford Road, Bristol, have all admitted to have partaken in a conspiracy to supply drugs.

Waithe competed for Barbados in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and taught PE and citizenship at Withywood Community School and Bristol Gateway Special School.

This echoes recent events which involved a drug smuggling Wigan couple. Matthew Wright and Stephanie Thomas last week received respectively six years eight months and four years six months for smuggling cocaine into the the UK. The couple was caught at Manchester airport where they were in possession of nearly ?80,000 worth of the drug.