City drug gangster found dead in Dubai hotel

NOTORIOUS TRAFFICKER WAS AN ASSOCIATE OF CURTIS WARREN

- By PATRICK EDRICH & BEN HASLAM

A DRUG trafficker who was the infamous Cali Cartel's man in Liverpool has died in Dubai.

Liverpool gangster Spencer Benjamin was jailed for 10 years for his role in an international drug conspiracy after he was watched by undercover police officers meeting a man at a Pizza Hut in central London.

The man was found to be Venezuelan drug lord, Ivan di Giorgio, who was said to be acting on behalf of the feared Cali Cartel - the Colombian drug gang who controlled over 80% of the world's cocaine market during the mid-1990s. A senior officer who led the investigation said Benjamin was the "organiser for the Liverpool end of the operation".

It was reported this week that Benjamin, formerly of Toxteth and later Halewood, had been found dead in a hotel room in Dubai - the Middle Eastern hotbed of organised crime. The ECHO understands Benjamin would be aged 53 or 54.

And a spokesperson for the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told the ECHO on Thursday: "We have assisted the family of a British man who has died in Dubai." The ECHO also approached Liverpool Coroner, which said it had not received a file.