Operation Julie set to become a film

06/12/2010 @ 03:56

A £100million drug bust which centred on Carno back in 1977 looks likely to become a film.

Welsh actor Matthew Rhys has bought an option to make a film based on a book on the Operation Julie drugs bust.

The star of US drama Brothers and Sisters also praised the world view of the mastermind of the gang who produced stashes of LSD worth at least £100m.

The book, Operation Julie, was written by author Lyn Ebenzer, based in Pontrhydfendigaid, Ceredigion.

The Cardiff-born actor, 36, has a one-year option on the tale of a 1977 drugs raid on LSD factories at Carno and Tregaron.

Six million tabs of LSD worth £100m were recovered in a joint operation between Powys police at The Met, £800,000 was discovered hidden in Swiss bank accounts, and 120 people were arrested throughout the UK and France.

A year later 17 defendants were jailed for a total of 130 years in the wake of the investigation code-named Operation Julie.

One of the gang's ringleaders, Richard Kemp, was sentenced to 13 years in prison and his partner Christine Bott was sentenced to nine years in jail. Both lived in Carno.

Mr Rhys, who is currently filming the fifth season of Brothers and Sisters, said he hoped to make an English language film for cinema release.

"After reading the book, I just thought it would make a great film because of the conflict between three very different groups, hippies, police and the rural population of Wales," he told the BBC.

"My hope would be to produce it or at least be part of the production team."

When asked what he believed should be the central theme of the film, Mr Rhys said he was impressed by Kemp's belief system.

He added: "Richard Kemp, the chemist mastermind, sums up at the end of the book that his intention was to make the world a better place and the eradication of materialism.

"Although I don't condone drugs, I was impressed by his motto, something that we could all embrace, not the LSD obviously.

"I think there's an age-old fascination with drug culture for numerous reasons, especially when that culture is placed in juxtaposition, like rural Wales."

Negotiations on the deal to buy exclusive film rights of the book had taken place between Matthew Rhys and the book's publishers, Y Lolfa.