A Warrington criminal fell foul of powerful gang bosses from Liverpool and Manchester after police seized a record cocaine haul on the M6.
A convoy of police vehicles surrounded a van carrying 186kg of the Class A drug when officers dragged the couriers out onto the fast lane of the motorway. It later emerged that police managed to recover the massive haul as part of a long running investigation into Warrington man Jamie 'Alvin' Oldroyd.
Oldroyd was jailed for 14 years in 2019 for conspiracy to supply cocaine. Sixteen members of his outfit were jailed for a combined total of 117 years.
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Oldroyd is said to have taken the name Alvin as a reference to the film Alvin and the Chipmunks. A trusted source told the ECHO that Oldroyd was known as 'Alvin' because he 'looked like a chipmunk.'
Liverpool criminals Alan and John Tobin supplied hundreds of kilos of drugs to notorious gangs across the UK. But their Liverpool drug empire came crashing down after police seized the £20m haul on the M6 in August 2018.
Last week Liverpool Crown Court heard how the Tobins and criminals from Manchester plotted to have a man named Alvin attacked in the prison system.
The revelation came during the sentencing of Lewis Fitzpatrick, who was involved in a shooting that left a 56-year-old Warrington man with life changing injuries. Fitzpatrick was jailed for 26 years for his part in the gun and drug conspiracy that was exposed after police penetrated the EncroChat phone network.
The court heard how Alan Tobin asked a Manchester gang boss to organise an attack on a man named Alvin who was inside the prison system.
Phil Barnes, prosecuting, said the Manchester man asked Alan Tobin which jail Alvin was in. Alan replied: "He's put me and our kid in this f****** hole were in and caused us so much shit. I will owe you the world bro carve the c*** up."
The Manchester man replied by promising to have Alvin attacked. He said he would 'take his eyes' and 'kill his mum.' The Manchester man cannot be named for legal reasons.
At the Tobins' sentencing over their drug conspiracies last year, the name "Alvin" was mentioned. Liverpool Crown Court heard on March 30, 2020, Alan had referred to being owed £1.5m by "Alvin". Nicola Daley, prosecuting, said: "It's believed that [Alvin] was the nickname used by Jamie Oldroyd."
In 2019 Liverpool Crown Court heard how Oldroyd and his family received a threat to life warning from police.
Businesses linked to his relatives were petrol bombed. Windows were smashed and a family home was shot at.
A compound where he kept Mercedes cars was broken into and the vehicles damaged in a campaign thought to have been overseen from Merseyside. Over the last 18 months the court have heard how Oldroyd was an associate of Warrington drug boss Leon Cullen.
The ECHO has previously revealed how Leon Cullen was targeted by powerful criminals from Liverpool and Manchester over a drug debt. Cullen later fled to Dubai but is now serving out a 22 year prison sentence.
Alan Tobin, 52, formerly of Regency Park, Widnes, was jailed for eight years for his role in the plots, consecutive to the 20-year prison sentence he is serving for his drug dealing. John Tobin, 41, formerly of Manor Road in Prescot, was handed two and a half years in prison, consecutive to his existing 19 years and eight months term for drug offences.
