A drug trafficker nicknamed the “Scouse Escobar” has had his massive jail sentence extended after being found with mobile phones in jail.
Prison officers discovered Christopher Welsh junior had a phone in one prison and then, after he was moved, linked him to another illicit device.
The 43-year-old is serving a 28 year sentence for two separate drugs conspiracies - including one managed with his dad, Christopher Welsh senior, reported the Liverpool Echo.
Welsh junior was initially jailed in April 2013 for his role in a £200m cross-border drugs network whose leading figures included his dad, who was also locked up.
Their operation saw vast amounts of high purity heroin and cocaine trafficked to Scotland as they pursued “wealth and the good life”.
The gang’s success led to Welsh junior enjoying regular holidays in Mexico, Spain, Holland, Greece and the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh.
His spending power was such that he blew £57,000 to fly 40 friends and family to Cancun for his wedding in June 2011.
Modelling himself on Colombian drugs baron Pablo Escobar, pictures showed friends in Mexico wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “Pablo’s stag do”.
Welsh junior was handed a 16 year sentence when a specialist police unit secured the gang’s downfall.
He refused to let his loss of freedom stop him and the “sophisticated and determined” criminal was back to trafficking heroin and cocaine just two months after being locked up.
During the course of two separate conspiracies, Class A and B drugs with an estimated street value of up to £3m were moved from Merseyside to other regions between July 2013 and September 2014.
Welsh junior, formerly of Lyndale Avenue in Eastham, Wirral, used a smuggled mobile phone and SIM cards to direct couriers north to Scotland.
He received a 12 year sentence for his role in that plot - a punishment that was added to the 16 year term he was already serving.
The 43-year-old found himself back in trouble with the authorities after he was twice discovered with phones in jail in 2020 and 2021.
Last week Caernarfon Crown Court heard he was discovered to be in possession of an iPhone and a SIM card in HMP Wymott, Lancashire, in August of that year and then, after being moved to HMP Berwyn in Wales, he was found with a tiny Zanco mobile and a SIM the following April.
The court was told he had used the mobiles to contact family during the restrictive prison regimes enacted during the various Coronavirus lockdowns.
Welsh junior admitted possessing specified items in prison and was handed a six month jail term for the offences - a period that will be added to the 28 years he is already serving.
