A drugs boss who conspired to flood Tyneside with millions of pounds of Class A drugs has died during his prison sentence.
Leslie Moulden spent a year on the run from the law after he was caught red-handed with over £2m of cocaine as he spearheaded a lucrative drug ring with the help of a pal he'd met in jail. But he was eventually brought to justice handed 16 years behind bars in 2019.
Now Moulden, formerly of Wallsend, has died in hospital at the age of 62. The cause of his death has not been confirmed.
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Moulden had been the head honcho of a gang involved in trafficking millions of pounds of high-purity drugs into the North East. While still on licence after being released from a 16-year sentence for conspiracy to supply MDMA, he set up the multi-million-pound underworld operation with Liverpool gangster John Mullally, who he had met in prison.
Prosecutors said the gang made many trips between Merseyside and Tyneside in what police at the time called 'a sophisticated and organised operation'. When police moved in to bust the gang, Moulden, then of Dilston Grange, Wallsend, was caught red-handed with four kilos of 86% pure cocaine, worth up to £2m.
He was ordered to appear in court in 2017 but went on the run for 14 months before police tracked him down in Leeds. When he finally appeared before a judge, Moulden was handed a 15-year sentence for conspiracy to supply cocaine plus an additional 12 months for failure to surrender to police
The court heard that he was "two different people" - a loving family man as well as a drugs trafficker, while a lawyer mitigating on his behalf said he was "no Pablo Escobar".
On Thursday, a Prison Service spokesperson said: “HMP Northumberland prisoner Leslie Moulden died in hospital on March 28. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has been informed.”
ChronicleLive understands his next of kin have been informed.
