A former cage fighter, who led a crime ring that trafficked "industrial quantities" of drugs between Merseyside and the North East, is still on the run despite being sentenced.
Former MMA fighter Darren Towler, 41, led a gang that flooded the North East with millions of pounds of import-strength cocaine, which was supplied by Merseyside gangsters Ricky Hemmings and John Campbell. Towler. Towler oversaw the supply of cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis across the North.
On Monday, the sentencing of Towler's sister, Anita Towler, 43, and of another group member, Steven Ruddick, 38, was adjourned. The court heard that Anita Towler, of Second Street in Consett, is "in conflict" with her brother and that Ruddick's barrister and the prosecution are yet to agree on the extent of his role in the drugs operation.
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Police put the group under surveillance in 2017 and followed ten journeys between Merseyside and County Durham within five months. Their investigations showed there were multiple kilos of drugs exchanged for hundreds of thousands of pounds, reports TeessideLive.
Police intercepted a car in Barnard Castle and found two shoe boxes, which were disguised to look like children's presents, with £100,000 in them. Prosecutor Emma Dowling told Teesside Crown Court that police found Towler "had all the trappings of a drug dealer", he was driving a luxury car and wearing a designer watch, but that he was unable to explain how he paid for them.
Ms Dowling said that Towler recruited contacts he had made in prison while serving an earlier sentence for the supply of drugs. He communicated with Ricky Hemmings using encrypted phones in an operation which saw huge bundles of cash totalling £1m, being sent back to Merseyside in payment for the drugs.
In October, Towler, of Rutherford Street in Newcastle, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis but denied the other charges. He was found guilty by a jury. The 41-year-old failed to appear at court, but was sentenced to 24 years in his absence.
His former partner, Jodie Smith, 42, of Main Street in Consett was jailed for six-years-and-six-months for conspiracy to supply class A drugs. Towler's half-brother, Jonathan Kitson, 28, of Riding Hill, Great Lumley, in Durham, was jailed for nine-years-and-eleven-months.
Two men from Kirkby were sentenced for supplying the drugs, as part of the conspiracy. Ricky Hemmings, 40, was handed a 12-year-six-month sentence; and John Campbell, 48, was jailed for six-years-and-eight-months.
The other North-east gang members who were jailed were:
- Aaron Merritt, 29, from Consett. He received a two-year-five-month sentence.
- Craig Field, 40, of Lincoln Place in Consett, was jailed for five-years-and-seven-months.
- John Huscroft, 45, of Thornhill Gardens, Burnopfield in Durham, received a suspended 22-month sentence.
- Daniel Mappin, 29, of Front Street, Tudhoe, in Durham was jailed for two years and nine months.
Mappin's half-brother, Steven Ruddick, has been remanded in custody until he is sentenced. Ms Dowling told the court that he worked for Mappin's heavy vehicle recovery business - but that the business was in financial difficulty.
Ms Dowling said that Ruddick introduced his half-brother to Craig Field so that Mappin could start to make money through dealing drugs. Ruddick, of Pasture Row in Bishop Auckland, will stand alongside Anita Towler on November 21, when they will both be sentenced.
Towler was also part of a group separately charged with trafficking heroin destined for the streets of Teesside. However he was found not guilty of conspiracy to supply heroin after a four-week trial in November 2016.
Co-accused John McNaughton, then 34 of Bethune Road, Middlesbrough, Anthony Thurlow, 28, of Hollyrood Court, Middlesbrough, Terrance Duffield, 42, of Clairmont Court, Thornaby, and Sean Hornsby, 48, of no fixed abode, were all found guilty of the offence.
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