Essex drug trafficker sentenced to 16 years for trafficking 1.1 tonnes of cocaine from Marbella
Steven Bullen, resident in a luxury villa in Nueva Andalucía, coordinated drug shipments to the United Kingdom using EncroChat. He was extradited and convicted by Southwark Crown Court.
Drug trafficker operating from Marbella villa condemned after being exposed by photograph
A photograph of a luxury home, hidden among hundreds of encrypted messages on EncroChat, was the mistake that ended Steven Bullen's criminal career. According to El Confidencial, the British national, former resident of Hornchurch in Essex, ran a cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamine trafficking network from a villa with swimming pool in the La Alzambra residential complex—in the Marbella district of Nueva Andalucía—supplying the British market.
Southwark Crown Court has sentenced Bullen to 16 years and four months in prison for offences of importation, production and supply of drugs. His main accomplice, Zak Archbold, an employee of the parcel company UPS in Stanford-le-Hope, also in Essex, has received a 12-year sentence for his role in the scheme.
The dismantling of EncroChat, starting point
The investigation began with the dismantling in 2020 of EncroChat, the encrypted messaging platform used by thousands of European criminals. Europol found the means to shut it down, which triggered a wave of arrests across the continent: more than 100 suspects arrested, 8,000 kilograms of methamphetamine seized, 19 synthetic drug laboratories dismantled and almost 20 million euros in cash intercepted.
Among the thousands of decrypted messages appeared the chat of the gang led by Bullen, whose members identified themselves with aliases such as "Cuddly Bandit", "Ghost" and "Veggie Kray"—the latter a nod to the East End gangster Reggie Kray—. Bullen operated under the alias Rocketspark; Archbold, under that of King.
A photograph and 250 spreadsheets
The image of the Marbella villa, carelessly sent via EncroChat, allowed investigators to identify Bullen's physical location and confirm his role in the network. The subsequent search of the property revealed the true scale of the operation: notes with cocaine and ecstasy prices, and 250 spreadsheets stored on mobile phones, a laptop and several USB drives with details about quantities, deliveries and payments.
The chats themselves showed Bullen sharing recipes for producing amphetamines—called "trainers" in internal jargon—and describing access to large quantities of chemical precursors. Investigators calculated that these compounds would have allowed the production of up to 2,250 kilograms of amphetamines, valued at 13.2 million euros.
UPS as gateway to the United Kingdom
The mechanism for introducing drugs into British territory was as effective as it was risky. Archbold, team leader at the UPS branch in Stanford-le-Hope, had advance access to information about which shipments would be inspected by the Border Force. He used that knowledge to change the labels on boxes containing drugs and ensure they continued their transit without raising suspicion.
When the British National Crime Agency (NCA) contacted UPS, the company confirmed that Archbold had been dismissed after admitting to package theft in an internal investigation. Agents concluded that those thefts concealed a much more profitable activity: the network introduced 28 packages through that route, some with up to 12 kilograms of cocaine. For every kilogram that passed controls, Archbold received 880 euros.
127.5 million euros in nine months
The courts have found it proven that Bullen brought 1.1 tonnes of cocaine into the United Kingdom between August 2019 and May 2020. The drugs, sent mainly from the Netherlands, reached a value of 103 million euros on British streets. In addition are arrangements to supply another 410 kilograms of cocaine—valued at 38.4 million—and 242 kilograms of ecstasy, estimated at an additional 11.3 million.
In total, the NCA calculates that the organisation moved substances worth close to 127.5 million euros in a period of just nine months. The network led by Rocketspark would have generated income close to 130 million in that interval.
Arrested in April 2025, three others remain at large
Bullen and Archbold were arrested on 8 and 9 April 2025, respectively, as a result of coordination between the NCA and the Spanish National Police. Bullen was extradited to the United Kingdom in August 2025 and has been tried and convicted in recent weeks.
The investigation also identified three other men—Benjamin Thake, Craig Merrin and Jurre Faber—accused of collaborating with Bullen. All three remain at large.
Source: El Confidencial