A Manchester-based drugs gang that caused 'misery and mayhem' in Devon was smashed after hotel staff reported their 'unruly' behaviour to police. Officers were regularly called to hotels and homes where members of the county lines operation were staying while down south.
The gang's ringleader Sean O’Neill stayed with his girlfriend at the trendy Hotel du Vin in Exeter while other hotels were reported to police when staff spotted thousands of pounds in cash. Some members were arrested repeatedly and released under investigation but went straight back into business, sending thousands of texts to customers every week.
As part of the operation, they used the street names Manc P and Black P and ‘cuckooed’ a wheelchair drug addict and used an empty flat while its owner was away, Exeter Crown Court heard. Police traced at least 16 trips from Manchester to Exeter in which two female couriers brought thousands of pounds worth of drugs to Devon and took back large quantities of cash.
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Three members of the gang were jailed today (Thursday, May 19). O’Neill, 35, of Canute Street, Partington, and Samuel Williams, 29, also of Partington, both admitted conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
O’Neill was jailed for six years and three months and Williams for four years and six months. Ashley Duhaney, 35, of Lock Lane, Partington, was jailed for four years and ten months after admitting possession with intent to supply and possession of extreme pornography.
Sentencing the three men, Judge Timothy Rose told them: “This was a substantial, very meaningful and very destructive county lines operation which wreaked havoc on local communities. You exploited others who were drawn into your operation and you caused a great deal of misery and mayhem. You were driven by just one consideration, and that was money.”
Samuel Allen, 29, was jailed for seven and a half years at an earlier hearing after admitting the same conspiracy and another drug dealing case.
Joss Ticehurst, prosecuting, said the conspiracy lasted between April and August 2019. The gang first came to the attention of police because of their anti-social behaviour while cuckooing a wheelchair-bound addict in Exeter.
There were a total of four seizures of £11,000 drugs over the next four months, the final one being at the Southgate Mercure Hotel, where staff called police because of their unruliness. The gang operated through a singe phone line called Manc P or Black P which was normally in the hands of O’Neill, or his lieutenant Williams.
The number of delivery trips and text advertisements suggested they had sold at least a kilo of drugs over four months, the court heard. All the defendants and the couriers claimed to be innocent holidaymakers when questioned by police.
Duhaney and Allen had also been caught dealing in a linked operation called Manc Todd in late 2018, when police found videos on Duhaney’s phone of a woman having sex with a dog and a man having sex with a goat.
Dominic Thomas, for O’Neill, and Rachel Smith, for Williams, said they had both stayed out of trouble, found work and started families in the time the case had taken to come to court. Will Durrands, for Duhaney, said the pornography had been sent to him unsolicited and he had not had a chance to delete them. He has three young sons who will miss him while in prison, the court heard.
