Nine men have been jailed over two plots to supply class A drugs, including cocaine, to a value of more than £1million using “sophisticated” techniques
A “professional” drug gang using “sophisticated” tactics to supply more than £1m worth of cocaine in a single month have been jailed for a total of 74 years.
Police smashed the conspiracy after the encrypted messaging network they were using was infiltrated by law enforcement officers in Europe. It found two plots to supply class A drugs in the North East, with two men involved in both conspiracies.
Now Scott Fawcett, Anthony Wilson, Daniel Chambers, Mark Baird, David Emmerson, Michael Wakenshaw, Alan McLaughlin, Jesse McIver and Thomas Foggin have all been jailed at Newcastle Crown Court.
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In the first part of the case, involving Fawcett, Chambers, Baird and Emmerson, prosecutor Richard Holland said: “Fawcett was the head of this particular operation. Chambers acted as a trusted lieutenant, appeared to keep an awareness of cash flow, transactions made and debts owed, arranged some of the supplies, adulterated the drugs as a separate service, and directed others.
“Baird and Emmerson acted as couriers, cash-counters and storemen, for which they were paid a fee. They were trusted with an EncroChat device during their involvement.”
In the second conspiracy, which involved Fawcett, Chambers, Wakenshaw, McLaughlin, McIver and Wilson, Mr Holland said: “It is clear from the messages and images exchanged that this was a sophisticated and very well run conspiracy, with each person knowing their role and having executed it professionally.
“This was very high level wholesale drug dealing, with cocaine and cash exchanged amounting to many hundreds of thousands of pounds. It was serious organised criminality run by professionals.”
The court heard at least 38 kilos of cocaine were actually supplied with plans made for the supply of higher quantities and evidence from the debtors’ list of an “established cocaine wholesale business at the time of the infiltration”, reported ChronicleLive.
Mr Holland said: “34kg was supplied between late March and late April 2020, with the drug expert giving a value to that quantity of £1.3m.”
In terms of their roles, the prosecutor said Wilson was a “trusted lieutenant” of the person running it, adding: “Anthony Wilson, in addition to payment for his work, also received wholesale quantities of cocaine for onward supply as a customer.
“Michael Wakenshaw’s role was as a courier, with additional responsibilities for weighing out of drugs, storage/collecting and counting of cash with the electronic money counter.Daniel Chambers assisted this group by mixing and repressing the supplied cocaine in order to maximise the group’s profit, for a fee of around £500 per kilogramme.
“Scott Fawcett was a wholesale customer. As is apparent from the evidence… he was the head of his own enterprise. Jesse McIver was a wholesale customer and appears to have others working under him. Alan McLaughlin’s messaging indicates him negotiating on price and being involved not simply on 20 April 2020 to hand over cash and receive drugs but on other days also.”
In addition, on April 28 2020, the police raided a home in Lemington, Newcastle, where Foggin had previously been an informal tenant By the time of the raid, Foggin had gone to Scotland and had become stuck there due to the Covid pandemic restrictions on travel.
On the first occasion police attended, they found a cannabis farm in the main bedroom. Mr Holland told the court: “Having found the cannabis plants but nothing else, the police boarded up the property but returned to search it again on 30 April 2020.
“This time they discovered, under the upstairs landing floorboards, hidden amongst the pipes and wrapped in bags, a 9mm handgun, together with eight 9mm compatible cartridges. A nearby gun box, labelled for a different firearm but in which handgun could be stored, was found in the hallway cupboard itself.”
Foggin’s DNA was on the handle of the gun box, the grip of the Luger handgun and on the magazine. It was also found on a screw which had held down one of the floorboards. Wakenshaw’s DNA was found on the grip of the gun box. Fawcett’s DNA was found on one of the ammunition cartridges. EncroChat messaging revealed Wilson was aware of the gun being there.
Fawcett, 37, from Shiremoor, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and cannabis, possessing a prohibited firearm and possessing ammunition without a certificate and possessing criminal property. He was jailed for 14 years.
Wilson, 35, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, possessing a prohibited firearm, possessing ammunition without a certificate and producing cannabis. He was jailed for 15 years.
Chambers, 48, from Cramlington, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and cannabis. He was jailed for eight years.
Emmerson, 48, from Lemington, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and he was jailed for four years and eight months. Baird, 36, from Lemington, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and cannabis. He was jailed for four years and eight months.
Wakenshaw, 40, of from Lemington, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, possessing a prohibited firearm and producing cannabis. He was jailed for 10 years and four months. McLaughlin, 50, from Chopwell, was convicted after trial of conspiracy to supply cocaine and he was jailed for seven years.
McIver, 27, from Walkerville, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and he was jailed for six years. Foggin, 38, of Grainger Park, Newcastle, was convicted after a trial of possessing a prohibited firearm, possessing ammunition without a certificate and producing cannabis. He was jailed for five years.
Sentencing them, Judge Julie Clemitson said: “There can be no doubting that the use of class A drugs is at the root of very much human misery. Flooding the streets with cocaine creates more users or addicts, more misery and more suffering.
“One does not have to spend very long in these courts to see how much damage drug misuse causes not just to the users or addict themselves whose lives often spiral out of control, as some of you know only too well, but also to their families and the community. The human and financial cost of drug misuse and addiction is immeasurable.
“It is impossible to quantify how many people might have been harmed as a result of the offending just in this case how many wretched souls might have fallen into harmful drug misuse because of the drugs that were supplied as part of these operations.
“How many are no longer able to hold down a job how many can no longer parent their children or keep a roof over their heads. How many of them suffer a serious mental illness is a result of their addiction or even lost their lives how many children have lost their homes their parents, their stability and security through the addiction of their parents.
“It is no exaggeration to say that lives are ruined and indeed lost as a result of drugs and that’s not to mention the cost the financial cost to the NHS children’s services and of course the justice system. That is why this offending has to be treated so seriously. These sentences have to try and deter other people from committing the sort of offences that you have.”
