'Gangster Debbs': The Grandmother Who Used Her Own Family to Run a Multi-Million Dollar Drug Empire

Early one morning in April 2023, undercover agents observed a woman loading boxes into a rental car at a shopping center near the port of Harwich in Essex, England.

They had received an alert about the car, which had left London the night before.

The vehicle continued to Ipswich, in the east of the country, where the woman handed a heavy bag of dirty clothes to a stranger.

The woman did not appear to be involved in drug trafficking. Her lawyer stated that "she was undoubtedly chosen because she was someone who would not attract attention."

This woman was Deborah Mason, known in her family as "Gangster Debbs", or "Queen Bee": grandmother and matriarch of a Mafia family that operated in the southeast of England.

Mason had recruited her four children, her sister and other close associates to help her distribute cocaine across the country, funding a lavish lifestyle that included Gucci accessories for her cat and a $250 kettle.

On July 18 of this year, the 65-year-old woman was sentenced in a London court to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to supply drugs. The rest of the gang received sentences ranging from 10 to 15 years in prison for the same crime.

London's Metropolitan Police monitored Deborah Mason for seven months after that early morning in Harwich, as she and her family gang collected cocaine and other drugs from ports, primarily Harwich, but also Folkstone and Dover.

The pattern was usually the same: they would take neatly packaged packages of cocaine, put them in grocery bags, and then hand them off to the next person in the distribution chain.

Police observed the gang making deliveries in south London and other UK cities including Cardiff, Bristol, Sheffield, Rotherham, Manchester, Bradford, Southend, Leicester and Walsall.

A man, arrested by police in Leicester shortly after a delivery, was caught with 10 kilos of cocaine. Other trips were made to collect the "salary," as they called it.

In total, the drugs moved by the gang had a wholesale value of between $30 and $40 million (R$168 to R$220 million), with a street value that could reach $110 million (R$615 million), according to the prosecution during the hearing.

The court heard the gang used codenames to communicate with each other and their supplier - a man known only as "Bugsy" - via the encrypted messaging app Signal.

Deborah Mason maintained a close relationship with "Bugsy" and even went on vacation with him to Dubai and Bahrain in October 2023.

Over the course of seven months, "gangster Debbs" made 20 trips transporting at least 356 kilos of cocaine, in addition to making deliveries and collecting cash.

Judge Philip Shorrock said she had a "command role" and described her as "a site foreman working under a project manager."

"As a mother, she should have set an example for her children, not corrupted them," she said.

The court also heard that Mason did not purchase drugs but was involved in managing transactions involving several kilograms of cocaine.

Prosecutor Charlotte Hole said: "She also organised the drivers who worked for her, keeping in touch by phone from the early hours to ensure they were awake and monitoring them throughout the day."

Luxury lifestyle

Profit was the motivation, and police said Mason spent lavishly on designer clothes, handbags and accessories.

Among those items were a $520 Gucci collar and leash for Ghost — her Bengal cat — and a nine-karat gold nameplate engraved with the cat's name.

When she was arrested, footage showed Mason handcuffed in the bathroom next to a DKNY towel.

While the conspiracy unfolded, "Gangster Debbs" was receiving $65,000 in welfare payments, Hole told the court.

Mason "expressed a desire to go to Türkiye to have cosmetic procedures" and took "part of other people's salaries," the prosecutor said.

She also booked holidays with her sister to Cornwall, Malta, Prague and Poland, and took her daughters to Dubai, from where they continued to run UK operations via video calls.

'Not an ordinary family'

Mason, whose number was saved in one of his sons' phones as "queen bee," implicated his three daughters, his son, and their partners in the plot.

All are beginning to serve their prison sentences. Mason's friend, 44-year-old Anita Slaughter, was also sentenced.

Mason's son, Reggie Bright, 24, delivered at least 90 kilos of cocaine over 12 trips, often accompanied by his partner, Demi Kendall, 31, his sister, Lillie Bright, 27, as well as his own mother.

"He used the codename 'Frank' on Signal and was clearly known and in direct contact with the supplier," Hole said, adding that Mason paid the gang approximately $1,340 per trip.

According to prosecutors, Reggie Bright and Demi Kendall were caught operating their own drug business from trailers in Kent, violating a previous sentence imposed for drug-related crimes.

Prosecutors argued that Mason's eldest daughter, Demi Bright, played a key role in the operations, transporting around 60 kilos of cocaine, although she was not as active as other family members, as she had other sources of income.

Mason's other daughters, Roseanne Mason and Lillie Bright, were also found guilty.

Roseanne Mason, 30, participated in seven identified trips, including to Bradford and Manchester. Lillie Bright, meanwhile, made 20 trips, and the court heard she had a "clear expectation of obtaining a significant financial advantage."

Lillie Bright implicated her partner, Chloe Hodgkin, who the court said will be sentenced later, after the birth of her son.

In mitigation, each defense attorney argued that everyone involved was "expendable" within the broader drug trafficking scheme, and that most of the children were simply "couriers" who traveled throughout the United Kingdom.

This was "no ordinary family," said prosecutor Robert Hutchinson. "Instead of caring for and protecting her family, Deborah Mason recruited them to build an extraordinarily profitable criminal organization that ultimately landed them all in prison."

Prosecutor Hole said there was no evidence of pressure or coercion for them to participate in the conspiracy, and that they all acted for profit.

Detective Constable Jack Kraushaar of the Metropolitan Police, who led the investigation, described Mason's operation as "sophisticated" and said it was "extremely lucrative for those involved".

"The group was drawn into criminality," he declared, "selfishly attracted by the financial gains of drug trafficking to support luxurious lifestyles."