Secretive Corby drug kingpin Ralph Gabbidon hit with £127k bill as he's ordered to pay back profits of his crimes

Ralph Gabbidon was given a 14 year jail term in December 2022 after a court heard he’d been one of the town’s most feared drug dealers for 20 years.

Despite cutting and dealing huge quantities of drugs from his unassuming Calder Close flat, he largely stayed out of the way of the authorities, preferring to keep a low profile.

He was known only as ‘J’, the first initial of his middle name Junior.

But when police finally raided two properties he’d been renting on the Shire Lodge estate and at Outfield Close in Great Oakley, they discovered an alarming cache of firearms and a drug factory where Gabbidon prepared and mixed drugs with cutting agents before packaging them for sale by runners around the town.

He had two Mercedes cars and £54,000 in his bank account which he told the court he’d made from putting together flat pack IKEA furniture for people in Corby.

They also found a sawn-off shotgun, an imitation pistol, large quantities of cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, amphetamine and cannabis ready for sale as well as 30 mobile phones, scales and handwritten lists of clients.

They discovered £18,000 in notes and £5,000 in coins as well as several different cutting agents.

When arrested, the defendant told police: “It’s all mine. I’m not coming out. I’m gonna be gone forever.”

Gabbidon was eventually found guilty by a jury of possession with intent to supply cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, amphetamine and cannabis, of possession of £23,000 in criminal cash, and of possession of a deadly sawn-off shotgun and a modified starting pistol.

He’d used his business, RJ Logistics, as a cover for legitimising his earnings but the court was told he’d earned a ‘significant financial advantage’ from his drug dealing. Detectives uncovered five bank accounts that he had been funnelling his earnings through.

Sentencing him in 2022, Recorder Graham Huston: “It’s clear police interrupted a long-standing, sophisticated operation of class A and B drugs.

“The proceeds of drug dealing are evidenced, showing significant profits made by you personally. You found it necessary to keep a shotgun and blank firing pistol to protect the operation.”

He was back in court at the end of October this year for the conclusion of a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing. The proceedings are designed to ensure that criminals are not able to walk out of jail and back to the huge profits they reaped from their crimes.

Her Honour Judge Adrienne Lucking, sitting at Northampton Crown Court, heard that a financial investigation had shown that Gabbidon, now 51, had made a traceable amount of at least £390,696.32 from his drug dealing over the years.

Of that, the court was able to recover a total of £127,018.95. He was ordered to pay the amount within three months or he will have 18 months added to the jail term he is currently serving.

He was also told he must pay a victim surcharge of £190.

Half of the money collected is paid to HM Treasury with the rest split between the court, the police and the financial investigator in the case.