A Merseyside gang who were jailed for a total of 187 years built a mini-empire around an unusual drug they cooked themselves in a suburban home.
Instead of focusing on cocaine or heroin, Anthony Saunderson, Paul Mount and Darren Owens found their own niche producing injectable amphetamine that they then shipped across England, Scotland and Wales. But their business, estimated to be worth millions, has come crashing down.
This is the story of a gang dedicated to the production and distribution of an unusual type of drug - and how that dedication brought them profit and prison terms.
READ MORE: Drug plot gang jailed for more than 180 years
The beginning
How Saunderson, Mount and Owens came to lead a scheme producing an unusual and lucrative form of amphetamine is not completely clear - but none of them were unfamiliar with the business of dealing drugs.
Each of the men has previous convictions for similar offences. Indeed, Saunderson was still on licence, having been jailed over a 2014 conviction, when his role in this scheme became clear. The gang’s activity is one of many uncovered by the breaching of the Encrochat network, a chat service that offered heavy protection from hackers and was therefore popular with criminals.
Messages sent over the network provide revealing detail of the gang’s activities - but they only go back so far. That means how the gang initially got started, and why they focused on amphetamines as opposed to other drugs, has not been fully established.
Amphetamine no longer holds the same notoriety as some of its peers. Fairly commonplace as a party drug taken alongside ecstasy in the 1990s, it has since waned in popularity compared to drugs like cocaine, which offers users similar effects.
However, amphetamine maintains one key advantage in its price point. At £900 for a two kilo pack, it is a fraction of the cost of cocaine, which can be priced at around £35,000 per kilo. Users unable to afford cocaine can almost certainly afford amphetamine. It can also be produced domestically from chemicals, rather than be imported.
However, complex chemical processes are required and it is a gruelling process for those prepared to do it. This is even more true of injectable amphetamine, which allows users to feel the drug's effect more quickly - and which Saunderson’s gang focused on.
None of this put the gang off - and by mid-2019 they were producing huge volumes of the drug in an unassuming home on the border between England and Wales.
The Wood Cottage era
By March 2020, when the first coronavirus lockdown hit, the gang’s efforts to produce amphetamine were in full swing.
Just over the border in North Wales, Wood Cottage, on Deeside Lane in Sealand, served as the focus of the gang’s production efforts. In a potato barn next to the house, they operated a factory where each worked diligently and in punishing conditions to produce amphetamine.
Nicola Daley, who led the prosecution of the gang, said Saunderson, Mount and the gang’s other members would go there each day, frequently in convoy, and work for hours producing drugs amid toxic chemicals.
The work was time consuming and complicated - and they would speak in Encrochat messages about the harshness of the effects of the chemicals and the intensity of the labour. However, they appeared to be committed to not cutting corners. Mount in particular had become experienced in utilising the Leuckart method, a chemical process, to produce amphetamine - and he and others discussed honing the process to ensure their product met their customers’ standards.
When one dealer in Manchester, who used the Encrochat handle “frostjacket”, complained about a batch of drugs which set in the needles of users, Mount and Saunderson were at pains to figure out how the mistake happened - and later settled on only using certain chemicals to ensure it would not happen again.
Their commitment to perfecting the production of amphetamine didn’t dampen their enthusiasm for trading in other drugs - and indeed some of the gang were later found to have traded in cocaine and heroin. Despite this, amphetamine remained at the core of their business - and it was a decision which was profitable. Trading to cities like Manchester, Newcastle, Swansea, Glasgow and Dundee, the gang’s trade was estimated to be of a total value of around £6million.
How the gang used HGVs, work vans and "the jockey" to move drugs across Britain
Producing and transporting drugs in the volume Saunderson and his associates were was not a small feat. A conservative estimate of the amount of amphetamine they produced was placed at around 600 kilos with another 800 kilos set to be supplied when the gang were apprehended. This required significant planning and equipment.
Luckily for them, they had legitimate businesses they could use as cover to move drugs and the chemicals needed to produce them. Darren Owens ran Eurowindows, a double glazing business in Huyton, and used its vehicles to transport supplies across the country.
Another man, Steffon Beeby, nicknamed “Halifax” after the West Yorkshire town where he was based, had a lorry which was sometimes used to move drugs.
Yet the job of transportation appeared to fall most heavily on Stephen Shearwood, nicknamed "the jockey". He would go as far as Newcastle and Scotland to deliver to customers.
All of this gave the gang the tools they needed to maintain their business and profit handsomely from it throughout 2019 and early 2020.
The move back to Merseyside - and the gang's downfall
Lockdown did not appear not to harm the gang’s business - and throughout the spring of 2020 its operations were in full swing. However, efforts to hack the messaging network they relied on were soon to change everything.
In the early summer of 2020, the Encrochat network was breached, flooding law enforcement agencies around Europe with information on organised crime happening across their patches. The references to Wood Cottage soon caught the attention of North Wales Police, who began surveillance activity in May.
The gang became suspicious almost immediately after. Before long, they took the decision to stop production at Wood Cottage. After one final “cook up”, where they used the remaining chemicals they had, the gang removed their equipment and abandoned the property.
When police later searched it, they found some evidence of illicit activity - but the majority of chemicals and equipment had already been taken away. The gang tried to adapt, moving chemicals used to make the amphetamine to the Boxworks storage facility in Aintree.
They established another factory, the location of which is unknown to this day, to produce drugs - but this arrangement didn’t last long. The remnants of the gang’s business came crashing down on June 26 when police raided multiple locations, including the Boxworks.
Saunderson, Owens, Mount and their associates were arrested. While some of the gang pleaded guilty once charged by the CPS, it took two trials to convict the rest.
The efforts of the group to make their amphetamine injectable may have given an edge to their business - but it has had devastating consequences for the gang’s members since their arrest.
Sentencing them on Friday, Judge Denis Watson QC said the efforts to produce injectable amphetamine were what made the case stand out.
Amphetamine is a Class B drug and convictions for producing or supplying it normally attract lower jail terms than drugs like cocaine and heroin. However, under UK law, changes made to any Class B drug to make it injectable move it upwards into the Class A category.
That, combined with the astounding quantities the gang dealt with, is a significant reason behind the lengthy terms many of the gang’s members now face. Lawyers for the defendants argued against treating it as a Class A drug because much of what was produced by the gang turned out not to be injectable.
Judge Denis Watson QC rejected those arguments, saying it was clear the group intended for the drugs to be injected and were dedicated to honing their processes to make that possible. They have paid a high price, with Saunderson and Mount handed sentences in excess of 30 years and Owens handed a 24 year jail term. Of the other gang members, who were involved in only some parts of the business, only one, Lee Eccles, got a sentence of less than ten years.
In total, the gang were jailed for more than 187 years.
- Anthony Saunderson, 42, of Formby, was jailed for 35 years after being convicted of conspiracy to produce and supply Class A and Class B amphetamine, conspiracy to supply other Class A drugs, conspiracy to supply other Class B drugs and conspiracy to transfer a prohibited weapon
- Paul Mount, 38, of Halsall, was jailed for 34 years after being convicted of conspiracy to produce and supply Class A and Class B amphetamine, conspiracy to supply other Class A drugs, conspiracy to supply other Class B drugs and conspiracy to purchase a prohibited weapon
- Darren Owens, 48, of Huyton, was jailed for 24 years after being convicted of conspiracy to produce and supply Class A and Class B amphetamine and conspiracy to supply other Class B drugs
- Kieran Hartley, 32, of Knotty Ash, was jailed for 23 years after being convicted of conspiracy to produce and supply Class A and Class B amphetamine and conspiracy to supply other Class B drugs
- Steffon Beeby, 42, of Halifax, West Yorkshire, was jailed for 15 years and six months after being convicted of conspiracy to produce and supply Class A and Class B amphetamine
- Lee Eccles, 33, of Maghull, was jailed for eight years and nine month after being convicted of conspiracy to produce and supply Class B amphetamine
- Stephen Shearwood, 38, of Maghull, was jailed for 14 years and four months after being convicted of conspiracy to produce Class B amphetamine, supply Class A and Class B amphetamine and to supply other Class A and Class B drugs
- David Kelly, 44, of Ormskirk, was jailed for 15 years and three months after being convicted of conspiracy to supply Class A and Class B amphetamine and conspiracy to supply other Class A and Class B drugs
- Michael Pope, 35, of Maghull, was jailed for 17 years and six months after being convicted of conspiracy to supply Class B amphetamine and conspiracy to supply other Class A and Class B drugs
A tenth man, Connor Smith, 29, of Maghull, will be sentenced at a later date.
READ NEXT:
Drug plot gang jailed for more than 180 years
Family 'overwhelmed' as people line street after ice cream man's sudden death
Key moment in Arriva strike dispute as Liverpool City Region leaders demand company acts
People in Liverpool area urged to lock windows and doors after burglaries
Mum of eight dies after spending years indoors so people wouldn't look at her
