A team of counsel from QEB Hollis Whiteman, led by Bill Boyce QC, were exclusively instructed to prosecute this wide-ranging and highly complex series of trials.
Operation Eaglewood was the largest ever criminal case in London prosecuted by the CPS and the Metropolitan Police Service. This case, involving the laundering of €100 million in cash and the seizure of more than £5 million pounds worth of cocaine, resulted in the convictions of 32 defendants, who together received a total sentence in excess of 200 years.
The controlling mind of the conspiracy to launder was Eyad Iktilat, who received, following a reference to the Court of Appeal by the Attorney General, a sentence of 30 years imprisonment, including 14 years for money laundering, the maximum allowed by statute. Also included in the list of defendants convicted of multi-kilo cocaine supply was Simon Ford, a London firefighter commended for bravery in the 7/7 Tavistock Square bombing, and Russell Tate, the brother of Patrick Tate, shot dead in the Rettendon Range Rover murders of 1995.
A team of counsel from QEB Hollis Whiteman, led by Bill Boyce QC, were exclusively instructed to prosecute this wide-ranging and highly complex series of trials taking place at Southwark, Woolwich and Kingston Crown Courts from February 2008 to January 2011.
Junior counsel in the main trials were Philip Evans and Bridget Petherbridge, who also prosecuted some of the later trials as leading junior counsel. Other trials in the series were prosecuted by Roger Smart and Lucy Kennedy. Philip Stott acted as a led junior across the whole operation, including in the Court of Appeal during the Attorney-General’s reference of some of the sentences as unduly lenient. Tom Broomfield and Caoimhe Daly also took on junior roles towards the end of the case
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