Anthony Murray in custody, spends Christmas and New Year Eve in cell like the horrifying film ‘Midnight Express’
Anthony Murray in custody, spends Christmas and New Year Eve in cell like the horrifying film ‘Midnight Express’
BY FEZA Uzay, Dec 30, 2020 — ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkish officials have released footage of the ex-tour manager of the rock band Happy Mondays checking out of his Istanbul hotel after learning that the police had busted a GBP 80 million cocaine haul he was allegedly involved in.
Anthony Murray, 52, spent Christmas in a Turkish jail insisting he was innocent and claimed he was only visiting the country to have a nose job, according to reports.
The Buyukcekmece Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is handling the investigation, also pointed out that he turned off his mobile phone so that he could not be easily traced.
The authorities claim he was a key member of the criminal syndicate smuggling in drugs from a Colombian cartel and that his nickname was ‘the doctor’.
Murray, who was also the tour manager for Black Grape and Ruthless Rap Assassins, was arrested after getting into a taxi outside the hotel shortly after the video was filmed.
He was among the 15 suspects who were arrested by the Istanbul police after sniffer dogs found drugs on a Colombian ship early October.
While six were released under judicial supervision, Murray and eight other suspected were remanded in custody.
The police said that Murray was a key member of a criminal syndicate accused of smuggling drugs into Europe.
The cocaine haul, weighing 228 kg, was hidden inside 3,500 bags of fertiliser on a ship from Colombia.
Murray is presently lodged in jail that very much resembles the horrifying ‘Midnight Express’— a 1978 movie by Allen Parker on drug trafficking, says a report in the local media. The film is based on a non-fiction book by the same name authored by Billy Hayes.
While in prison, Murray reportedly caught Covid.
Earlier, ex-manager of Happy Mondays had been jailed in Manchester for his connection in £300K cannabis deal.
Formed in Salford in Greater Manchester, the UK in 1980, Happy Mondays were famous for enjoying the drug scene of the late 1980s and early 90s and the band often referred to the lifestyle in their albums — Madchester Rave On and Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches.
Turkey has one of the world’s largest drug trafficking routes. According to the World Drug Report 2020 by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Turkey ranks second, after Iran, to seize the highest quantity of heroin.
“Seizures of heroin and morphine in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, which had tripled in 2017, rose by a further 6 per cent in 2018. Turkey continued to account for the bulk of heroin and morphine seized in that subregion (95 percent),” the reports says.
In 2018, Turkey reported the largest national total of seized “ecstasy”, according to the report. The drug is supplied from Afghanistan to most part of Europe through Balkan route via Turkey.
Last year, Turkey stepped up its drive against drug traffickers. Under ‘0peration Swamp’, the Turkish Police detained 74 people in connection with drug trafficking. As many as 74 suspects were arrested in the operation conducted in collaboration with nine other countries, said Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, in a press briefing earlier this year. According to the Turkish government, the country’s consistent cooperation with European nations led to the dismantling of many drug networks along the Balkan route.
(Edited by Megha Virendra Choudhary and Shirish Vishnu Shinde)
