Drug lord’s wife, 56, who laundered £128,000 through her bank account as her husband smuggled £23million worth of cannabis into Britain faces paying back £27,000

• Mandy Ashman, 56, laundered a total of £128,000 through her bank account 
• This was as her husband Joseph headed drug network based in Rainham, Essex 
• In 2016, Mrs Ashman received a two-year prison term, suspended for two years 
• The prosecutor said the Crown are applying to get her to pay up £27,057.13 

The wife of a drug lord who laundered part of the cash her husband made smuggling cannabis might have to pay back £27,000, a court heard.

Mandy Ashman, 56, laundered a total of £128,000 through her bank account as her husband headed a drug network based in Rainham, Essex, the Old Bailey heard.

Joseph Ashman, 54, imported 4.5 tonnes of cannabis into Britain, worth £23million.

He was jailed for eight years and eight months in January 2015 after admitting conspiracy to supply drugs and money laundering.

The drug lord was jailed for a further four years in 2016 for employing his wife and sister, Mary Dunn, to launder his cash.

Mandy Ashman (pictured left), 56, laundered a total of £128,000 through her bank account as her husband Joseph (right) headed a drug network based in Rainham, Essex

He has now been released from prison, the court was told.

In 2016 Mrs Ashman received a two-year prison term, suspended for two years after the judge said she was ‘no shrinking violet’.

Prosecutor Henry Skudra told the court today that the Crown are applying to get Mrs Ashman to pay up £27, 057.13 of ‘tainted gift’.

‘The application for compliance order is against Mrs Ashman,’ Mr Skudra said.

‘It is simply: Pay up the tainted gift.’

The application will be heard at the Old Bailey on December 8.

At the time sentencing Mrs Ashman, Judge Richard Hone QC told her: ‘You are portrayed as the victim of a domineering husband but having seen you over a four-week trial I formed the view you are no shrinking violet whose husband told you nothing about his criminal activities.’

Judge Hone sadly died recently and the case was taken over by Simon Mayo QC. 

Joseph Ashman was a linked to notorious drug trafficker Kevin Hanley who was jailed for more than 17 years in 2014.

The National Crime Agency followed Ashman and his associates, confiscating cardboard boxes full of cannabis.  

The cardboard boxes were full of cannabis, which had been carefully packed so they did not give off an overpowering aroma when being brought into the country

The boxes were carefully packed so as not to give off the smell of cannabis. 

Ashman met his associates at various locations to orchestrate the distribution of the drugs.

He and his gang shipped the drugs around the UK using their contacts on the freight industry.

One by one his gang was arrested following a two year investigation by the National Crime Agency, forcing him to import smaller and smaller quantities of cannabis.

He was eventually arrested in early 2014.

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