A drug gang member from Scotland has been handed an 18-month sentence after being caught in a National Crime Agency sting that brought down a £1.1million cross-country drugs factory.
Stephen King, 49, of Dumbarton, was snared as a lackey in a drugs ring headed up by so-called 'kingpin' Terence Earle. The group trafficked truckloads of heroin and cocaine between Merseyside and Scotland, and was geared up to produce methamphetamine on an "industrial scale" at a secret lab in Motherwell.
But the operation unravelled after King was caught meeting with co-conspirator Stanley Feerick in November 2020 during NCA sting Operation Joyfully. Shortly after the meeting, Feerick was arrested driving a lorry that contained a holdall packed with heroin worth £300,000 and £20,000 in cash.
In December 2020, police used spike strips to stop a lorry carrying 560kg of alpha-phenylacetoacetamide (APAA), a chemical used to make amphetamine, after it had been loaded up at a warehouse near Blackpool. If it had made its way to Scotland, cops estimate it could have produced 1,000kg of the drug, worth £1.1million.
Investigations revealed that the gang – leader Earle, King, Feerick, Lee Baxter and Stephen Singleton – co-ordinated their activities using EncroChat, an encrypted messaging app that was meant to hide communications from prying eyes. However, the platform was infiltrated by police in 2020 and EncroChat messages revealed that the drug gang had also been involved in shipping cocaine between England and Scotland.
Singleton was snared after being captured supplying 500 litres of isopropyl alcohol, another component in manufacturing the drug, to a delivery driver in a Ford Transit van in Merseyside for £4,000 in April 2020. The same van was then seen unloading plastic drums filled with the substance in Motherwell later that same day.
Earle, King, Feerick and Baxter were convicted in December last year, and faced sentencing at Liverpool Crown Court today. Scotsman King, who has four previous convictions for five offences, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, as well as 100 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement.
Speaking on his behalf, lawyer Jacob Dyer said: "His involvement in this was over a relatively short time. He has had a limited involvement, on the periphery."
Earle was jailed for 16-and-a-half years after admitting conspiracy to supply cocaine and conspiracy to produce amphetamine. Singleton admitted a charge of conspiracy to produce amphetamine and was handed a 41 month sentence to be served alongside an existing nine year and two month term linked to a drugs lab in Yorkshire.
Baxter was given a 22-month suspended sentence after admitting participating in the activities of an organised crime group, acting as a "go-between" for the group trafficking drugs north and south of the border. Feerick, who admitted plotting to supply heroin and participating in organised crime, will be sentenced at a later date.
A proceeds of crime hearing is scheduled for later this year, which could see the gang's ill-gotten gains seized by prosecutors.
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