This is the second time that Graham Ellis’s name has appeared on the front page of BangShift and sadly, neither time has it been in celebration of good news. The first time was due to a massive pro mod wreck that he suffered at Santa Pod which we featured in this story. Today the news is even worse. No, he was not in another crash. Instead he was convicted, along with his son of running a drug smuggling operation that brought millions of dollars worth of heroin and cocaine into England via creative means. The Ellis family has long been known for competing in the alcohol funny car ranks and (as mentioned above) pro modified. Their cars were top shelf machine and normally ran without big sponsor backing. After the convictions were handed down, it was interesting to see British drag racing fans reaction which was (as you would expect) a mix of disgust and disappointment at the actions of the pair and there was a bunch of AH HA! type comments when it was revealed how the small business operators were able to race at such a high level with little to no major backing.
According to several British news sources, Gareth Ellis began serving a nine year sentence yesterday and his father began serving a 20 year sentence yesterday as well. According to authorities, the family operated a trucking company called El-Trans that acted as the cover for the smuggling operation. They had a truck with fake batteries in it that would be loaded with their illicit cargo and that’s how they got the stuff into the country. From that point, the authorities say that the men distributed the drugs to organized crime organizations. Their scheme came unraveled when a driver was arrested and seems to have acted as an informant, which gave the police plenty of leads in hemming the men in.
Here’s an excerpt from an English newspaper called the Brentwood Gazette: Graham and Gareth Ellis were both arrested in the early hours of July 11 at their home addresses. A rented industrial unit in Rawreth, containing a number of high value motor vehicles – including a racing car worth 120,000 euros and a part-built drag racing car designed to be the fastest in Europe that Graham Ellis had already spent £97,000 on – was searched and almost £50,000 cash was found in a safe under the floorboards.
As a result of the operation police recovered a total of 26kgs of high grade cocaine and heroin with a street value of £3.5 million.
A financial investigation is ongoing to identify and seize the gang’s assets.
They had sponsors…it’s just difficult to credit a drug cartel.
Wow, I remember seeing their Charger Daytona Pro-Mod and the horrific wreck at Santa Pod, I seem to remember pit chatter about how they could afford it. It seems they did it illegally!
Seem like the white line they were following wasn’t just on the 1/4 mile.
Arrogant, secretive “entrepreneurs” who get off on the risk of the drug business seem to fit well with racing…sometimes vice-versa. Old-time fact-of-life.
That’s a good point. Seeing as NASCAR spawned from running illegal moonshine, I guess it has been a long relationship between racing and running illegal substances.
I mean it’s pretty well known that a lot of those fast street cars, especially chevy trucks, out of texas and cali are funded by the cartels.
Al Bundy has let himself go.
Yes he does look like Al Bundy there. Incarcerated like Ted Bundy though.
In reading the full article the “millions of pounds” must mean millions of Euros or something because that is a HUGE amount of cocaine or heroin for any operation unless the officers were just trying to glorify the arrest me thinks.
@Luther Eat a couple more burgers and do some research into global currency…..
I’m sure it goes on more than you can imagine. Always seems to be a racer or two that are better equipped than their means would allow.
Surely a sick April Fool’s joke?
Apparently they got caught after a being chased by police for exactly a quarter of a mile…..
I reckon there’s plenty more guys out there that are racing above their legal budget. I have wondered that many a time.