A crack cocaine and heroin dealer managed to recruit 10 people, including his girlfriend, into his county lines gang named as the 'Tom' team.
Christopher Martin recruited ten people, one of which was his girlfriend Sophie Fletcher, to supply Chester with crack cocaine and heroin from Merseyside. Martin travelled from his home in Merseyside to Chester where he would stay in hotels while carrying out criminal activity.
While he stayed in Chester, Fletcher and John Turner would transport drugs from Merseyside to Chester on his behalf, with them either travelling with Martin in his Range Rover or by taxi. Fletcher also took up the responsibility of packaging the drugs into smaller quantities ready to sell.
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Fletcher and Turner would then instruct Michael Davies, Peter Morley and Kelly Munday to stand in alleyways and street corners to sell the drugs to users. Carl Kelly, another member of the gang, also regularly travelled between Merseyside and Chester to pass on orders and instructions to those who were involved with dealing the drugs on the streets and to ensure the operation moved was running smoothly.
The evidence used to convict the county lines gang was collected over a 12-month period in an investigation by Cheshire Police called Operation Longhand which led officers to £10,000 worth of crack cocaine and heroin. During the course of the operation, the organised crime group is believed to have profited between £94,000 and £186,000, with the gang eventually being arrested on Tuesday, March 8, 2022.
Three members of the group, Martin, Fletcher and Turner, were sentenced at Chester Crown Court on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin. The other members of the gang were sentenced at later dates after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin.
The gang used six graft phones during their time and sent hundreds of text messages advertising the sale of crack cocaine and heroin. Richard Pendleton provided his home as a base for Martin's gang to operate out of, with him also ensuring the profits made were passed higher up the chain.
The gang used properties across Chester to store the drugs and took advantage of vulnerable people. Cheshire Constabulary Detective Constable Richard Connolley said: “Martin was a switched-on and sophisticated criminal.
He used an encrypted messaging service to hide the conversations he was having about his criminal activity in order to make them secure. However, despite his attempts to be discreet and recruiting others to do the hands-on work he remained active which made him easily identifiable to police.
“Over the course of the investigation we gathered evidence that showed exactly what role each person played and how the team operated. Then on top of that the local community were coming forward to report seeing drug dealing occurring on their street and in alleyways which strengthened our case.
“I want to take this opportunity to encourage the local community to keep reporting drug activity to police so that we can continue to put organised crime gangs in prison.”
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