Gangs from Manchester and Merseyside jailed for over 141 years in force's largest county lines operation
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An operation began after a Cheshire town became a drug market for organised crime gangs in Manchester and Merseyside.
On a daily basis, and in full view of the local community, drug dealing took place at parks and on the streets of Warrington as gangs competed for their place and marked their territory.
The gangs carried weapons including machetes and axes as a way to threaten and warn rivals.
One gang carved its name into a tree branch at Sankey Valley Park as a way to claim a patch.
While others used stolen cars to travel to Warrington with crack cocaine and heroin.
Detective Superintendent Simon Draco, Cheshire Constabulary’s lead for serious and organised crime, said: “These gangs had effectively taken over Warrington using local parks frequented by children as locations to deal class A drugs from.
“Gangs from both cities, along with some operating locally, had established themselves in the town with drugs being openly supplied in the community.
“This led to officers receiving lots of information from the public painting a picture of what was taking place.
“It was clear that this could bring potential increases in threats, violence and crimes such as aggravated burglaries.
“We therefore needed to find a solution that would disrupt the gangs controlling the drug market before there was an escalation of violence and criminality.”
That solution was an eight-month operation by Cheshire Constabulary’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit to identify the individuals sat at the top of the hierarchy and gather evidence of the gang’s movements.
Almost 14 months since the operation began drug dealers from six gangs were sentenced over three days at Liverpool Crown Court. One of the gangs was sentenced on Wednesday 9 March and Thursday 10 March at the same court.
The remaining four gangs will be sentenced in April 2022.
Thirty men and one woman are now behind bars for a total of 141 years and eight months.
The court heard that the leaders of the gangs were all operating under a county lines drugs conspiracy.
They would use a phone line – known as a graft – to receive drug orders then recruit local street dealers to sell the heroin and crack cocaine to users in Warrington.
Codenamed Operation Spartans – detectives used a range of tactics including undercover operatives and the gangs’ use of mobile phones to uncover multiple county lines teams who were all competing to lure in customers by advertising their best deals.
It is reported around 50 to 200 text messages – known as flares – were issued each day to drug addicts from the gang’s graft phones in order to make a substantial profit.
At least six gangs were estimated to have made a combined total of between £558,000 and £1,116,000 during the operation.
However as the investigation progressed detectives identified a single gang had taken over a considerable proportion of the drug market in Warrington.
They initially operated under the radar by basing themselves in one person’s home. However within a matter of weeks they had become well established and were using multiple properties in Warrington as well as drug dealers from the town and in Salford.
They would either befriend, manipulate or force themselves into the homes lived in by vulnerable people in order to use the property to store and sell heroin and crack cocaine – a term known as cuckooing.
Det Supt Draco added: “This started from information being reported by the local community and went on to become our largest operation as we disrupted eleven organised crime groups.
“Those sitting at the top of the conspiracies were exploiting vulnerable people and local users from Warrington. They used street dealers to carry out their orders while they kept themselves under the radar by basing themselves in other cities.
“Unbeknown to them they were also under observation by our officers who worked incredibly hard for a long period of time to build evidence and eradicate these gangs who destroy the community purely for an illegal profit.
“The evidence gathered for the entire case was built so strongly that all the defendants entered a guilty plea.
“I want to thank the public for coming forward with information that has led us to where we are today and to encourage people to keep reporting this activity so that together we can make the community even safer for residents and hostile for criminals.”
John Dwyer, Police and Crime Commissioner for Cheshire said: “I commend the hard work of detectives in bringing down County Lines teams who were exploiting vulnerable people. The extent of this operation and the sentences it has resulted in show that in Cheshire we are serious about taking criminals off our streets and drugs out of our communities.
“Protecting vulnerable and at-risk people is a key priority in my Police and Crime Plan and Operation Spartans is a prime example of how the Constabulary is achieving this. The message is clear: Keep reporting this sort of activity so the police can build a bigger picture, investigate properly, and make criminals pay.”
If you have information relating to drug activity taking place in your community please report it here or anonymously by calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 and Cheshire Constabulary will do the rest.
To spot the signs of county lines criminality please click here
The Long Haired Luke Team
This gang was headed up by Craig Williams, working closely with Desi Challinor, Keelan Emery and Mason Clemonds, and based in Salford, Manchester.
They were the largest of the eleven organised crime groups and took over the entire drug market in Warrington. One of their text messages ‘Long haired luke back on 247 all day and all night everyday fattest and best stuff in Warrington’ was sent to 79 different numbers in one day. The team supplied drugs to an undercover operative on 13 occasions.
The gang would arm themselves with weapons. Three of the gang, Antony Cragg, Mark Ingle and Alex Brady were filmed on a video walking around in possession of an axe.
Keelan Emery was controlling the supply of drugs that came into Warrington as well as those dealing drugs. He would re-supply the street dealers, collect the cash profits and take it back to Manchester.
Officers observed street dealers Brady and Challinor leaving an address on Longshaw Street in Warrington that was used as a safe house.
Clemonds was found to have used taxis to travel from Manchester to Warrington. One taxi company he used for eight single trips to travel from the city into the town and back at a cost of £320. Another company was used 15 times to take him to numerous safe houses in the town.
A machete was seized by officers from Joshua McDougall on 30 June 2021.
Both Emery and Clemonds ran a trial at Liverpool Crown Court until the strength of the evidence forced them to change their plea to guilty.
The Onion Team
To mark their territory or ‘patch’ to other gangs in Warrington the Merseyside based gang carved their name on a tree branch in Sankey Valley Park.
The Jonno Team
This team were caught using a stolen BMW X3 driven by Freeman. The Serious and Organised Crime Unit set up a plan for the vehicle to be intercepted by officers in Newton-le-Willows. It had been returning to Warrington after picking up more heroin when the driver failed to stop. A pursuit took place leading to a police car being rammed and the occupants decamped. They were chased and subsequently arrested.
The gang, from Merseyside, were also caught selling drugs to an undercover operative during Operation Spartans.
The Paul Team
This was the second largest drug gang evidenced by officers, Stephen Brett ran the drug line from Liverpool and gave instructions to his ‘right hand man’ Kyle Thomas from Warrington. Brett would organise couriers to collect the drugs from Liverpool on a daily basis and Thomas would be charge of the distribution in Warrington. At its peak this drug gang was one of the busiest in Warrington.