Deborah Mason was known as “Queen Bee”

16:08, 19 Jul 2025Updated 17:39, 19 Jul 2025

Deborah Mason was the boss of the family-based organised crime group(Image: Met Police)

A “gangster granny” was running a family-based organised crime group which was making huge sums of money by transporting drugs around the UK, a court has heard.

Deborah Mason – who was known as “Queen Bee” – was in charge of the operation which was responsible for delivering an estimated tonne of cocaine to a network of drug dealers from Cardiff to Bradford to London in just seven months.

Woolwich Crown Court heard members of the gang were earning around £1,000 a day from their illegal activities while 65-year-old Mason was living an lavish lifestyle on the profits being made, including splashing out on fancy hotels and a Gucci collar and lead for her pet cat.

The gang has been jailed for a total of more than 100 years with the Crown Prosecution Service describing them as “no ordinary family”. For all the latest court stories sign up to out crime newsletter

The court heard that Queen Bee and her gang were taken down by a detailed investigation from the Met Police in London which included extensive phone data analysis as well as covert surveillance. The investigation found the gang was using hire cars to collect shipments of cocaine arriving by ship at Harwich Port in Essex and then transporting them around the UK to towns and cities including Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham, Rotherham, Leicester, Walsall, London, and Southend.

The group used the encrypted messaging app Signal to communicate with other and plan the drop-offs and collections. The messages recovered by police also showed that Mason was living an extravagant lifestyle with her profits including buying a Gucci collar and lead for her cat and splashing out on luxury outdoor garden items, hotels, and holidays.

Following the investigation, all but one of the group were arrested in May 2024. The final member of the gang was picked up in November 2024 after being identified from the messages.

Following an 11-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court, Deborah Mason, Roseanne Mason, Chloe Hodgkin, Lillie Bright, Demi Bright and Anita Slaughter were all found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs

Tina Golding, Reggie Bright and Demi Kendall all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs before the trial. Demi Kendall and Reggie Bright also pleaded guilty to a separate offence of possession with Intent to supply Class A drugs and possession of criminal property, namely cash.

Deborah Mason, aged 65, of Crayford Road, Tufnell Park, London, was sentenced to 20 year in prison

Roseanne Mason, aged 29, of Grosvenor Avenue, Canonbury, London, was sentenced to 11 years in prison

Demi Bright, aged 30, of Samuel Peto Way, Ashford, Kent, was sentenced to 11 years in prison

Lillie Bright, aged 26, of Evergreen Way, Ashford, Kent, was sentenced to 13 years in prison

Reggie Bright, aged 24, of Frittenden Road, Staplehurst, Kent, was sentenced to 15 years in prison

Demi Kendall, aged 31, of Frittenden Road, Staplehurst, Kent, was sentenced to 13-and-a-half years in prison

Tina Golding, aged 66, of Beecholme Drive, Ashford, Kent, was sentenced to 10 years in prison

Anita Slaughter, aged 44, of Pearmain Way, Ashford, Kent, was sentenced to 13 years in prison

The sentencing of 23-year-old Chloe Hodgkin, of Abbots Walk, Wye, Kent, was adjourned to a date to be fixed.

Some of the cocaine recovered by police during the investigation into a crime gang led by 65-year-old Deborah Mason(Image: Met Police)

Speaking after the sentencing Metropolitan Police Met detective constable Jack Kraushaar – the officer who who led the investigation – said the group had been “sucked into criminality” by the prospect of making money and the lavish lifestyle it could buy them.

He said: “This was a sophisticated operation which was extremely profitable for those involved. Following months of work by the Met Police to relentlessly pursue these perpetrators, we were able to arrest and eventually convict them, preventing more drugs flooding streets across the UK which leads to violence, antisocial behaviour and misery for communities.

“The group were sucked into criminality, selfishly attracted by the financial benefits of the drug-dealing to fund lavish lifestyles. They were unaware we were coming for them and this sentencing should act as a deterrent to those who think about committing this type of crime.”

Robert Hutchinson, specialist prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This was no ordinary family. Instead of nurturing and caring for her relatives, Deborah Mason recruited them to establish an extraordinarily profitable criminal enterprise that would ultimately put them all behind bars.

The CPS worked closely with the police from the earliest opportunity to make sure we had ample evidence to prosecute them for the full extent of their actions. We reviewed thousands of messages and other digital evidence that not only revealed incriminating messages sent between them, but also a significant pattern of deleting messages, helping to prove that they all knew exactly what they were doing.”