Gang boss who was arrested in his pants to pay back fraction of £764k gains
Gang boss who was arrested in his pants to pay back fraction of £764k gains
Luke Mattan, 36, of Cardiff, was sentenced to 15 years and eight months imprisonment for conspiracy to supply class A drugs
Drug dealer Luke Mattan arrested outside his home in underwear
An organised crime gang leader who was arrested outside his home in his underwear has been ordered to pay back just £1,700 despite benefiting by more than £700,000. He was involved in the supply of thousands of pounds worth of cocaine.
Luke Mattan, 36, of Cardiff, ran the crime group alongside his "number two" Saswall Abdullah, 27. Both men were involved in the supply of 12kg of cocaine. They were also connected with Joseph Thomas-Mullen, 49, a member of the Liverpool gang based in south Wales who would collect debt money from Mattan on behalf of an upstream supplier.
In April 2020 an arrangement was made for Mattan to purchase 5kg of cocaine for £195,000 from Thomas-Mullen and the upstream supplier. For the latest court reports sign up to our crime newsletter.
Mattan was also given two keyworker certificates to be used by his couriers in case they should be stopped by the police during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Luke Mattan, 35, of Cardiff, was involved in the supply of 12kg of cocaine.
(Image: South Wales Police )
Mattan's courier Carla Trace, 43, drove a hired Nissan Juke wearing a carers uniform to London on April 5, 2020, to pick up the 5kg of cocaine before stopping at an address in Fairwater, Cardiff, where Abdullah lived. Trace was arrested on April 23, 2020.
Article continues below
Luke Mattan was arrested on June 17, 2020, at his home. Footage released by South Wales Police showed the dealer in his underwear as police armed with a taser place him in handcuffs outside his front door.
Thomas-Mullen was arrested on July 17, 2020 at Cardiff Airport upon returning from Malaga, and Adullah on July 22, 2020.
Luke Mattan's siblings, Kirsty Mattan, 34, and Jordan Mattan, 32, were also involved in the enterprise as couriers.
In April 2020, Kirsty Mattan collected £14,480 on behalf of her brother. She also acted as a courier by delivering money and a gram of cocaine to Thomas-Mullen.
Drug dealer Luke Mattan, 35, was arrested outside his home in Cardiff in his underwear.
(Image: South Wales Police )
Kirsty Mattan was arrested in August 2020 and denied being involved, but claimed others had access to her phone.
Jordan Mattan, who acted as a "storeman" of class A drugs, was arrested on June 17, 2020. He was found to have delivered 600g of cocaine to Porth in March 2020.
Luke Mattan, of Fairwater, Cardiff, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
He was sentenced to 15 years and eight months imprisonment, last year.
Article continues below
A Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Monday heard Mattan had benefited to the tune of £764,435 as a result of his offending, but only has assets worth £1,788.
Judge Shomon Khan ordered the defendant to pay that sum within three months or serve an additional one month imprisonment in default.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
4 hours ago
- Daily Record
Nicky Campbell calls for extradition of paedophile teacher as beast marks 86th birthday
'With every passing year, and every birthday he marks as a free man, it looks more and more like he'll be allowed to die in South Africa and that would deny justice to thousands of survivors.' Broadcaster Nicky Campbell and fellow ex-pupils of paedophile teacher Iain Wares are demanding he is finally extradited from South Africa to face justice as he celebrates his 86th birthday today – still a free man. Nicky said yesterday: 'He abused boys typically who were around nine years old and, with the help of the South African authorities, he is still doing it. 'He is still breaking the hearts of his victims. It breaks my heart every day. 'I was sexually and physically abused by other teachers at Edinburgh Academy but Iain Wares – who never taught me – is the reason I came forward. 'Seeing him sexually abuse my friend from only a yard or so away in a changing room – the image is with me every day and it breaks my heart every day. 'That's what drove me into the public domain, and the frustration we all feel knowing that it would just take a signature from the South African justice minister to get him on a plane is hard to bear. 'We know South Africa has a chaotic system of justice, but we can't understand why it is standing in the way of an old, white paedophile being sent to face justice. Is it negligence, inefficiency or worse?' Nicky, 64, said fellow survivor Neil Douglas, who flew to Cape Town in April 2023 to look Wares in the eyes as he faced a charge of sexual abuse in his homeland, had calculated that Wares had abused thousands of boys. He added: 'Those who were in his classroom were familiar with how he abused and how many boys he targeted in each group, and Neil multiplied that by the number of classes he had taught over all the years of his career. Timeline 1968 Wares travels to UK from his nativeSouth Africa to get psychological support for paedophilia. He is treated at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. 1968-73 He is employed by Edinburgh Academy to teach primary-age boys mathematics. He also coaches sports, including rugby. 1973-79 Moves on to nearby Fettes College, where he continues to teach. 1979-2006 Returns to South Africa and teaches at Rondebosch Boys' School in Cape Town. 2019 The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry hears numerous accounts of alleged physical and sexual abuse carried out by Wares, known as 'Edgar', at both Fettes College and Edinburgh Academy. 2020 Extradition order is signed after the Crown Office decides to charge him with six offences of lewd and libidinous behaviour and an indecent assault. 2022 Delays caused by the Covid pandemic and the complexity of dealing with extradition are exacerbated when Wares is charged with allegedly abusing a boy at Rondebosch. June 2022 Fettes pays a reported £400,000 compensation to one of Wares's alleged victims at the school. Dec 2022 Fettes pays a reported £450,000 to a second alleged victim of Wares. Jan 2023 Former SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford uses parliamentary privilege to name 'Edgar' as Iain Wares. March 2023 With Wares facing more than 80 charges relating to more than 40 alleged victims, Lady Smith, chair of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, agrees he can be named. April 2023 Wares appears in court in Cape Town facing abuse charge. June 2023 Alleged victims plead for justice to move more quickly fearing time will run out for them. Dec 2024 Delays mean South African case will run into next year. June 2025 Nicky Campbell demands the extradition of Wares, who turns 86 today. 'He came up with a figure, way into the thousands, and then divided it by ten so that he wouldn't be accused of overestimating it – and it was still in the thousands. 'If Iain Wares is put on trial, we believe he will emerge as the most prolific paedophile in British criminal history. 'All we ask is that he comes here and has a fair trial. If he is found not guilty and goes home, we will find a way to accept that. But he has to face justice and he should have the courage to want that himself. This has been going on for eight years, adding insult to more than 50 years of injury. 'With every passing year, and every birthday he marks as a free man, it looks more and more like he'll be allowed to die in South Africa and that would deny justice to thousands of survivors.' More than 100 victims have made allegations about Wares's sadistic physical and sexual abuse to Police Scotland and the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI). Crown Office prosecutors have presented their South African counterparts with a solid case for Wares's extradition and they feel this remains the case even though some charges are incompatible with their law and have been ruled out. It's understood the accounts of more than 60 victims in the UK are accepted as actionable by the South Africans, yet he remains a free man in a luxury retirement complex just outside Cape Town. Neil said the delays were further traumatising Wares' victims, and every passing year made justice seem less likely. He added: 'At least 72 men have complained to police. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. 'We know of at least a dozen who have taken their own lives, and I have spoken to many more who cannot face the trauma of reporting his crimes. The barrier to his extradition is a request, on behalf of 65 victims, that has languished on the desk of the minister of justice in South Africa, Mmamoloko Kubayi, for over eight months. 'Were she to sign it, then Interpol could request an arrest warrant from a magistrate. 'The minister has been non-responsive to requests from journalists, campaigners and survivors. We cannot imagine why she would not approve the request to extradite a prolific child abuser and paedophile.' The South African Ministry of Justice decided last summer, after years of legal arguments, that Wares should be 'extradited soonest' to face the many charges in Scotland. But Wares, who admitted his crimes when they were first put to him, and his legal advisers, who effectively tore up his confession, have managed to delay justice for victims. Wares was described by Nicky as Scotland's Jimmy Savile when the SCAI heard evidence about his abuse of an unprecedented number of pupils at Edinburgh Academy and Tony Blair's old school, Fettes College. It is understood that if Wares is sent back, he could face the longest indictment ever seen in Scotland. He now denies all the charges despite admissions of paedophilia in his distant past. The SCIA heard he came to Scotland in 1967 to seek treatment for his paedophilia at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. The psychiatrist who treated him had been a family friend in Cape Town and encouraged him to go into teaching, describing Wares in medical notes as a 'pleasant pederast'. He taught at Edinburgh Academy from 1968 to 1973 before being forced to leave, with a glowing reference, after complaints of sexual assaults on pupils. As the inquiry heard in 2023, Fettes employed him for six years, even keeping him on after governors learned of his treatment for paedophilia and incidents at the academy, as well as allegations at their school. A South African group that lobbies for justice, Women and Men Against Child Abuse, has supported the survivors of the Edinburgh schools and recently published an article on its website calling for Wares' extradition. It said: 'From the 1960s to the early 2000s, Wares operated unchecked in elite boys' schools in the UK and South Africa. 'At Edinburgh Academy and Fettes College, he didn't only molest children, he struck them, humiliated them, manipulated them.' It added: 'He has not been arrested, he has not been extradited, and the Department of Justice has offered no answers. The men he brutalised are still living with the aftermath. 'While Wares spends his days quietly by the sea, his victims relive moments they've spent a lifetime trying to forget.' The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said: 'This has been a complex investigation and COPFS appreciates it has been difficult for all those involved. 'In order to protect any future proceedings and to preserve the rights of the complainers, the Crown will not comment further at this stage.'
Daily Record
4 hours ago
- Daily Record
Tinder rapist facing life term after putting victim through a horrific ordeal
Rian Hood was found guilty of rape and engaging in a course of abusive behaviour. A serial sex attacker is facing a life sentence after being convicted of raping a woman he met on Tinder. Rian Hood put the victim through a horrific ordeal during a campaign of abuse. Hood, a 34-year-old ex-clothes shop supervisor, denied being physically or sexually violent – even claiming in a bizarre video clip that the woman had, instead, hurt him. He is already serving a seven-and-a-half-year jail term imposed in 2022 for raping and abusing four other women. Hood was due to be sentenced for this latest crime as he returned to the dock last week. But judge Lord Colbeck continued the case again for a full risk assessment to be carried out on the sex attacker. This could eventually lead to an Order for Lifelong Restriction being imposed on him. He is scheduled to be back in court in September. Hood, formerly of the city's Knightswood, told jurors how he was initially in contact with the woman via Tinder. He stated he had never used the dating app before as 'you hear all these horror stories'. It was not until early 2020 that the pair physically met. He had been aware at the time of allegations made by one of the victims in the later 2022 trial. Hood claimed he told the woman in this latest case about those accusations. He said there was 'not much reaction' from her. Hood went on to move in with the woman and her mother at their home in the west of the city during one of the Covid lockdowns in 2020. Hood insisted there was 'seldom' any sexual contact between him and the victim. The woman, however, told how he stood on her face and then forced himself upon her during one attack. The abuse also took place at other flats in north Glasgow. His lawyer, Frances Connor, asked him at one stage: 'Any truth that you wanted cocaine so you could have sex for hours and hours?' He refuted this, insisting the drug would have had the 'opposite effect' on him. Miss Connor also asked if anything had occurred without the woman's consent. Hood again denied this. The attacker was also physically abusive, with claims he had hurled Chinese spring rolls at his victim. He instead alleged the woman had previously 'erupted' at him after confronting him about cheating on her. Jurors were shown a mobile phone clip recorded by the woman where a drunk and topless Hood claimed he could not walk as she had 'broke' his toe by allegedly throwing a towel at him. In the previous trial, Hood had been convicted of 10 charges of similar abuse against four women between 2010 and 2020. The jury in that trial heard how Hood degraded and controlled his partners, tracking their movements and blocking their contact with friends and family. Jade Doolan, who was raped and abused by Hood, previously told the Record she wanted to see tougher sentences for men like Hood who terrorise their partners. She bravely waived her anonymity to say: 'Every day I go over the whole thing telling myself what I could have done to make myself safe. I am tortured everyday by what he did but I'm pleased he's been found guilty and I hope the courts punish him harshly for the women he has harmed. 'I was told by another victim who was in court that he'd cried like a baby as he was taken away – I wasn't surprised. I always knew he would react like that. It's called justice.' At the previous trial Fraser Gibson, Scotland's national procurator fiscal for High Court Sexual Offences, said: 'Rian Hood is a habitual domestic abuser. 'Women who became involved with him quickly found themselves subjected to appalling sexual and physical violence, until they lost all confidence in themselves. 'I would commend them for their courage in speaking out.'
Wales Online
9 hours ago
- Wales Online
Two illegal immigrants from Albania found in £400,000 drug farm
Two illegal immigrants from Albania found in £400,000 drug farm The pair had paid people smugglers to get them into the UK Inside the former Swansea restaurant (Image: South Wales Police ) An organised crime group turned a disused restaurant into a commercial-scale cannabis farm, a court has heard. When police raided the building they found 900 cannabis plants and sophisticated growing equipment - along with two Albanian so-called gardeners with a collection of "designer aftershaves". Swansea Crown Court heard that Albanians Aleksander Cela and Dennis Horeshka had paid people smugglers to get them into the UK and were in debt to those who organised their travel. The identity of the gang running the cannabis farm operation remains unknown. The court heard that on May 8 this year police executed a search warrant at 12 The Strand in Swansea city centre which had formerly housed a restaurant. As police were going through the door of number 12, two men were seen to exit from the neighbouring property which was a disused bar. Meanwhile officers inside the former restaurant found hundreds of cannabis plants along with growing equipment, and also found a hole had been knocked through into the neighbouring bar which was also being used to cultivate the drug. Given the find, the two men trying to casually walk away down the street were arrested. The court heard that police found three floors of the former Meatery and Martini restaurant had been converted into a cannabis-growing operation, with a flat being used as living quarters for "gardeners" tending the harvest which stocked with food and bottles of "designer aftershave". Aleksander Cela (Image: South Wales Police ) Article continues below In total, officers seized a total of 903 plants worth up to £395,000 across the two premises along with a haul of associated growing equipment. Both defendants remained silent during their interviews. For the latest court reports sign up to our crime newsletter Aleksander Cela, aged 26, and Dennis Horeshka, aged 30, and both of no fixed abode, had previously pleaded guilty to producing cannabis when they appeared in the dock via prison videolink for sentencing. Neither man has any previous convictions. Steven Burnell, for Cela, said the defendant had been a painter and decorator in his native Albania and owed money to those who had brought him to the UK illegally. He said they were his instructions that his client had been at The Strand property for some two months watering the plants prior to the police raid, and he said Cela wanted the court to know he regretted his involvement in the operation. Dennis Horeshka (Image: South Wales Police ) Andrew Evans, for Horeshka, said the defendant's story was one that would be "all-too-familiar" to the court - namely someone who had entered the UK illegally with the assistance of people traffickers to whom he owed money. He said any money earned by Cela which didn't go the smuggling gang was sent home to his family in Albania, and the advocate said his client also wanted to express his remorse for his involvement. Judge Huw Rees said it was clear from everything he had read that the defendants were not being held against their will at the Swansea property and had food, phones, money and "relative freedom of movement". Article continues below With a one-third discount for their guilty pleas the defendants were sentenced to 32 months in prison. Defendants ordinarily serve up to half their sentences in custody before being released on licence. Judge Rees said the issue of deportation was a matter for the Home Office.
