For 178 days, the Long Haired Luke drugs line ran like clockwork - day and night - between Salford and Warrington.
During six months, the county line gang is estimated to have brought around between 1.7kg and 3.5kg of class A drugs onto the streets - with a value of up to £500,000.
Sending out flare messages - often teasing the ‘fattest and best’ drugs - they would tempt users in the small town of Warrington with crack cocaine and heroin.
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But exactly a year on from their activity, some 14 individuals have been jailed for a total of more than 59 years.
The Long Haired Luke line was burst open at the seams and dismantled thanks to Cheshire Constabulary’s Operation Spartans - a crackdown on organised crime groups in the area.
Chickens, receding hairlines and covert operations would all form part of a dedicated investigation unearthing the gang’s activity and this is how they were caught...
Between January and the end of June 2021, the Long Haired Luke line worked as a covert operation based in Salford, but providing drugs to Warrington.
A sentencing hearing at Liverpool Crown Court heard how the gang was led by Craig Williams, 20, of Liverpool Street in Salford.
Williams, who was once a talented footballer, would arrange the deals in Warrington from his Salford home while managing the gang’s many graft, or burner, phones.
His involvement took place while being in breach of a previously imposed suspended sentence for dangerous driving and handling stolen goods.
Williams, who has one previous conviction for four offences, was given a jail sentence of six years and eight months.
Judge Andrew Menary, proceeding matters, said Williams had been responsible for ‘directing and organising the buying and selling of drugs on a commercial scale’.
“You have substantial links and an influence on others,” the judge added.
Williams had also been in breach of a previously imposed suspended sentence for dangerous driving and handling stolen goods while taking part in the conspiracy.
Prosecutor Henry Riding told the court that the gang sent 16,094 flare text messages - issued to multiple numbers at one time - over the course of 178 days.
The burner phones also received around 49,312 calls and texts during the same time period - averaging out at a call every five and a quarter minutes over the duration of the conspiracy.
The gang would often use properties within Salford and Warrington as safehouses to store and supply the drugs.
Longshaw Street in Warrington - - a property belonging to Antony Cragg, 32 - was one of the seven safehouses identified.
Defending Cragg, Ian Morris said his client’s property was used as a safehouse following threats made against him, but Cragg insisted he had always stayed away from gang activity.
Cragg, a frequent drug user who was often on the receiving end of the gang’s many flare messages, had previously admitted to being involved in one drug deal with an undercover police officer but the prosecution said he was probably involved in more.
Prosecutor Mr Riding said: “There are videos suggesting dealings going on at Mr Cragg’s address.
“The dealings took place at a window immediately adjacent to the front door and a receding hairline of a gentleman, which is a feature of Mr Cragg, is seen on the footage at the time.
“The crown do persist in the suggestion that while Mr Cragg may have been involved as he himself is an addict, he was very much a willing participant throughout this particular conspiracy.”
Sentencing Cragg to three years and seven months in prison, Judge Menary said he had been a 'willing participant'.
Robert Spakouskas, 44, of Brook Drive in Great Sankey, was another frequent drug user roped into the gang’s activity by dealing and transporting.
He was jailed for five years and five months.
The court also heard how Daniel Kilcourse, 23, of Oronsay Grove in Salford, played a significant role in the gang’s operation.
Evidence found Kilcourse, who said his involvement in the gang was ‘just as a driver’, had used four burner phones to stay in regular contact with his co-conspirators.
Defending Kilcourse, Alistair Reid said his client, who had one previous conviction to his name, had become involved with drugs after losing his job.
"He deeply and bitterly regrets the turn his life has taken,” Mr Reid said.
Kilcourse was jailed for three years and four months.
Desi Challinor, 20, from Manchester, had also become involved in the Long Haired Luke gang after losing his job.
"He became involved after losing his job just shortly before the pandemic hit,” Challinor’s barrister Jane Greenhalgh said.
"He also found out that his ex-partner Courtney Moss had become pregnant."
Ms Greenhalgh said this, alongside the death of a close friend to cancer in 2019, had ‘sent his life on a spiral’.
Challinor’s former girlfriend Courtney Moss, 25, of Aspinall Crescent in Worsley, was described as having a significant role in the gang’s activity.
Moss, who pleaded guilty in January 2022 just days before giving birth to her daughter, took on the role of driver for Challinor and had been in attendance on numerous drug deals, including one with an undercover cop.
Defending Moss, Mark Friend said she had been a part of the operation for a ‘relatively short period’ but had ceased involvement by March 2021.
Mr Friend said Moss had previously worked as a carer and had expressed ‘deep shame and remorse’ for her actions.
Moss was sentenced to three years and eight months, while Challinor was handed four years and eight months.
Alex Brady, 21, of Lightoaks Road in Salford, also pleaded guilty to the conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin.
Brady was responsible for some of the gang’s street dealing and would also regularly travel to and from Warrington with one of the graft phones.
The court heard how Brady had gone to great lengths to ‘alter his appearance’ after being pursued by police.
Defending Brady, Oliver Jarvis said the fact that his client had used his own contract phone, linked to his home address, in gang operations demonstrated a ‘lack of maturity and naivety’ to his involvement.
In response, Judge Menary said that Brady, who was handed a sentence of four years and eight months, had nonetheless been 'right at the centre’ of the gang’s activity.
Keelan Emery, 22, of Nassau Drive in Swinton, and Mason Clemonds, 19, of Bank Lane in Salford, previously pleaded not guilty to the conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin but later changed their pleas during a trial.
The trial heard how Emery played a ‘top end significant role’ and was responsible for managing the gang’s graft phones.
His Audi A3 vehicle had been caught on cameras on numerous occasions going in and out of Warrington.
During the trial, Emery attempted to explain how some of his movements had been to buy five chickens from Hens Haven in Warrington.
Further trips to the area, he claimed, were in order to buy chicken feed - also providing photographic evidence of the chickens during the trial.
However, police were later able to prove Emery’s statements were inaccurate, also identifying how the photos of the chickens had been taken a year earlier.
Prosecutor Riding said Emery changed his plea on day 13 of a trial after ‘facing the possible prospect of his mother having to give evidence in relation to the purchase of chickens'.
Judge Menary added: “You pleaded guilty at the end of your evidence and no doubt at a time when you realised the cock and bull account you gave would not stand up to any sort of scrutiny.
“Frankly, the spectacle of that would not have been pretty.”
Emery was given a sentence of six years and eight months.
Clemonds, who has four previous convictions for nine offences, changed his plea on day 11 of the trial and was found to have played a 'top end significant role' in the operation.
He was tracked down taking multiple taxi trips from his home in Salford to Warrington at the cost of around £30 each way.
Matthew Curtis, defending Clemonds, said his client had become involved in the gang after being faced with ‘limited options’ when released from prison in 2020 for a previous offence.
Clemonds, who had been on licence during the conspiracy, received seven years.
After receiving his sentence, Clemonds called the judge a ‘nonce’ while family members in court could be heard calling his sentence ‘f****** bull****’.
Others pleading guilty to the conspiracy included Mark Ingle, 45, of Longshaw Street in Warrington, and Saje Nearon, 42, of Birmingham.
Judge Menary said Ingle and Nearon had been 'employed as street dealers and directed by whoever had the graft phone' and both received a sentence of two years and eight months.
William Ferguson, 40, of Salford, was jailed for five years - minus 15 days served on curfew - for his role as a driver transporting drugs, people and graft phones.
Johnathan Newns, 21, of Salford, was jailed for three years and four months.
Joshua McDougall, 20, of Salford, was jailed for two years and three months in September.
Jayden Clifford, 18, of Ashdale Drive, Manchester, was given a 10 month sentence suspended for 18 months.
Having pleaded guilty to the supply of cannabis, he will also be required to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
Addressing the co-conspirators, judge Menary said: "These offences were exposed by clever detective work by officers at Cheshire Constabulary, who identified that all of you were actively involved in the operation of county lines drug trafficking.
"The operators of these particular conspiracies moved significant quantities of drugs from Manchester to Warrington, where they were dealt to drug users.
“This was plainly a very successful operation trading night and day - often in two shifts, literally 24/7."
He added: "This enterprise also operated a network of seven safehouses in the Warrington area which were used to store drugs and money.
"I've no doubt some of these were acquired as a result of cuckooing, where the homes of users were taken over by those running the operation."
Judge Menary added that it was not possible to identify how much drugs had been dealt or how much money was made during the operation.
He added: “It’s impossible to be precise about the number of actual drug transactions so it is impossible for me today to be sure about the quantity of heroin and crack cocaine that was traded.
“The lowest estimation is around £178,000 to just short of under half a million.
“I am sure that the total combined weight of drugs was somewhere in the region of between 2 to 3kg. It is no less than that figure but may be significantly more.
"On any view, this was trading on a commercial scale.
“This was county lines trafficking which involved a degree of sophistication that street dealing would not contain.”
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