Off The Cuff

Drug dealer jailed for decorating Christmas tree with cash and cocaine

December 31, 2021
Bharat Times

Marvin Porcelli’s Christmas tree was decorated with drugs and 20 pound notes.

Is it possible to go to jail for Christmas tree decorations? You can say no. But what if decorations are actually drugs? That’s exactly what happened to a drug dealer in the United Kingdom. The man’s decision to decorate his Christmas tree with small packets of drugs and cash came back to haunt him. Dealer Marvin Porcelli took pictures of Christmas tree decorations on his mobile phone. The images were eventually retrieved by police, who added them to a vast pile of evidence indicating his involvement in a major narcotics ring.

Police in Merseyside, northwest England, said Porcelli had been arrested in a major operation called Overboard. The police shared this information on Twitter. The thread also had some lessons for potential drug traffickers.

Police said that when people turn to drug overdoses, their taste in festive home design “goes out the window”.

In a later tweet, the police shared a picture of a Christmas tree with a packet of cash and drugs.

Then, in another tweet, police said they caught Porcelli during a year-long operation called Overboard, “which is apt how we’d describe Christmas decorations on her phone”.

Besides Porcelli, eight other people were also caught during the operation and the police seized several “interesting parcels”, which contained medicines worth 1.3 million euros (about Rs 10.90 crore).

“Kidding aside, these men were serious criminals, highly organized and somewhat well armed. Police said they did not trust the expertise, persistence and abilities and law enforcement across Britain and Europe.

Some of those arrested used encrypted technology to communicate. Police said he has been sentenced to a total of more than 89 years in prison.

According to a report in daily mail, Porcelli was arrested in March after police raided his partner’s home in Liverpool and seized nearly a kilogram of cocaine. When officers asked Porcelli if there were any drugs on the premises, he said “Class A drugs”. The police then found two containers between the bed pillows, each containing more than 500 grams of cocaine. The estimated cost of carrying was around £37,000 (approximately Rs 37 lakh).

A few weeks later, when police raided Porcelli’s home, they found some wraps described as “white powder”. He also got several calls. A picture of a Christmas tree was taken from one of those phones.

Many applauded Merseyside Police for revealing the nexus and expressed surprise at the “decorated” Christmas tree photo.

One user said, ‘Omg just saw the bags.

Another user said he thought criminals were planning a “White Christmas”.

Marvin Porcelli was jailed for seven years and six months.

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