Cocaine, London’s second favourite drug and Ike Turner’s first favourite breakfast, is no stranger to the fancy restaurants of the West End. Just last week, Gordon Ramsay claimed to have been asked to mix some with icing sugar and sprinkle it on a soufflé.
Justyna Gorska, the manager of Dion bar in St Paul’s, had a slightly less inventive method of delivering gear to her customers, one which has landed her a 28-month jail sentence after a court hearing at the Old Bailey on Thursday.
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Over a three-month period this summer, customers could enter the Dion bar, order a specific drink and end up with a £50 wrap of cocaine, courtesy of Gorska.
The court heard how Gorska had supplied cocaine to customers in the bar on six separate occasions after they ordered a specific drink from the menu. (Reports did not say which drink it was, but I think it’d be a safe bet to assume Gorska chose the Moscow mule.) After being instructed to put money into menus, Gorska would remove the menus and return with a drink and a packet.
When arrested, Gorska was found with a single wrap in her bra, which she handed over to police voluntarily, admitting that she knew that what she had done was wrong. However, she does deny being a drug dealer, and claimed that the cocaine was given to her by a friend.
The tactic might seem novel, but is really nothing new. Last year, the owners of a Croydon pub were sentenced to two years in jail for using their business as a front for supplying cocaine and class B drugs to customers.
