An Italian rugby star who family’s Breaking Bad-inspired ‘chemsex’ ring which used an Uber driver to deliver drugs has been jailed for six years.
As events unfolded, Lorenzo Bocchini, who received a medal of honour in 2009 after saving people from an earthquake, was caught with batches of narcotics a stack of cash when police stormed an Airbnb-rented apartment in London’s Little Venice on July 7 last year.
The South African born rugby star was inspired by the TV show ‘Breaking Bad’, it turns out, to build his own crystal meth lab at his London home. Lorenzo Bocchini cooked batches of narcotics at his hi-tech base in London’s Little Venice after being inspired by fictional drug baron Walter White. He even dyed the crystal meth blue, just as the dealers do in the TV series. When police stormed the Bocchini’s laboratory they found  a cache of drugs worth $369,000,000 , another $40,500 in cash and a stun gun.

Lorenzo’s brother, Alessandro: Investigators found $15000 worth of drugs in his home. Sentenced to serve six years behind bars after admitting a series of drug offences

The 36-year-old former prop, who played for Italian club sides L’Aquila and Viadana between 2000 and 2010, has admitted a series of drugs offences including possession of crystal meth with intent to supply.
Initially Lorenzo had claimed he was holding the drugs for his brother Alessandro, 43, and his sister-in-law, Justine, 36, who supplied crystal meth to the chemsex scene in south London.
The pair was arrested in October 2016 after a police raid uncovered hoards of meth, MDMA, and $15, 000 at their Bayswater home.
Officers discovered that they had dyed the crystal meth blue, just as the fictional drug baron Walter White did in the TV show ‘Breaking Bad’.
Police say the Bocchini family accrued millions of dollars running a drugs enterprise that used an Uber driver as a courier to deliver ‘T-bags’ around London.
Lorenzo, a former rugby prop who played for Italian club sides L’Aquila and Viadana between 2000 and 2010, claims he was merely a ‘custodian’ of the drugs – but Southwark Crown Court heard he was closer to the supply chain.
Prosecutor Grant Vanstone said: ‘The crown will say that because of the amount of cash recovered, the value and extent of the drugs found in the [Little Venice] premises, that Mr Bocchini clearly must have been close to the source of supply.
‘Given the values involved, that amount of drugs isn’t left with somebody unless they are a trusted individual.’

Lorenzo’s sister-in-law Justine, received a four year jail sentence after admitting a series of drug offences with her husband, Alessandro Bocchini

Detective inspector Stephen Payne told the court the defendants ‘lived a high-roller, Breaking Bad lifestyle, not really knowing what to do with the cash. They even seemed to adopt the Breaking Bad signature of dying their crystal meth blue.’
Mr Vanstone said the drugs involved are used in drug-fuelled orgies, adding: ‘What we say is that the amounts and types are the types of drugs that are used in particular parties.
‘They are sex parties that use a range of various drugs in order to facilitate and improve sexual behaviour.’
Bocchini has admitted one count of possessing 813g of crystal meth and seven counts of possession with intent to supply drugs including 1,354 MDMA tablets and 34.9g of cocaine.
Earlier, the other members of the family drug manufacturing and distribution enterprise, brother Alessandro Bocchini and his wife Justine, were jailed for six and four years respectively after admitting a series of drug offences.
An investigation revealed the couple had paid $123,000 of drugs profits into their bank accounts in the six months leading up to their arrests.
Detective inspector Stephen Payne, of Omega squad, said: ‘It was like the ‘Breaking Bad’ scenario. These were professional people who made a choice to go into this venture. They were not career criminals but were looking for an opportunity to make money out of nothing.

Justine Bocchini is seen counting proceeds of the family’s drugs enterprise

In mitigation Bocchini claimed he fell into London’s gay chemsex scene after the career-long experience of hiding his sexuality from teammates due to homophobia in the game, before dealers then enlisted him as a minder for their safe houses.
The former rugby star claimed London’s chemsex scene made him feel ‘euphoric’ after he lived a ‘double life’, never daring to even kiss a man before an earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy, brought his rugby career to an end in 2009.
The former prop forward received a medal of honour for ‘services to humanity’ after helping to rescue victims from the rubble said he fell on hard times after moving to London in 2010 and began a minimum wage job at a fast food outlet in London.
He then began going to chemsex parties and taking drugs as he sought to meet people in the ‘gay capital of the world’.

Seized: Driving licences, some wallets and foreign cash, seized by police during the raid on the Bocchini homes, last summer

Drug money: Some of the cash that was seized by police during the raid last summer 

Dealers noticed his beefy frame and recruited him as a minder for drug safe houses they rented through Airbnb.
Giving evidence at Southwark Crown Court, Bocchini said: ‘In Italy homosexuality is not tolerated at any level.
‘I was living a double life.’

Lorenzo Bocchini ‘the euphoria of being in the gay capital of the world led me into the drug dealing scene’

He continued: ‘We had an event [in Italy] were there was a couple of gay boys there.
‘Some of my own players were beating these boys for the fact that they were gay.
‘I hadn’t had a sexual relationship because of homophobia in rugby.’
He described London as ‘the gay capital of the world’ and said at chemsex orgies ‘I always felt better felt euphoria – the depression disappeared’.
‘We had the parties often many different drug dealers would come through,’ he added.
‘I was a big guy they knew I could look after them – they knew I would keep their stuff safe for them.’
Bocchini claims he was merely a ‘custodian’ of the huge drugs cache found at his apartment in Little Venice.
‘In a way it was a Godsend to get arrested and get my life back on track,’ he said.
Judge James Curtis jailed Bocchini after concluding that he had been dealing drugs from his ‘Aladdin’s cave’ of narcotics in Little Venice.