A drugs gang who used vulnerable drug addicts, the COVID lockdown and a city centre hotel to peddle cocaine and heroin across the North West have been jailed.
Discovered through Encrochat, the gang were initially run by Ricci Ferrari, 38, who brokered deals with drugs importers and buyers in the UK. Helped by right-hand man Anthony Davies, 38, alongside Stuart Shears, 52, the three dealt in over 19 kilos of class A drugs worth over £1 million.
However, following the collapse of the encrypted system in 2020 by authorities, Ferrari stepped back and Shears and Davies continued, using others for their dirty work.
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After pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs and money laundering, they have all been jailed at Manchester Crown Court.
Prosecuting, Andrew Ford KC said the offences came to light following the Europe-wide hack into Encrochat, an encrypted program used exclusively by members of organised crime groups to plan criminal activities.
Ferrari, using the handle “PlatinumTonic’, was acting as a broker between importers of class A drugs and the ‘domestic customer’.Over a two-and-a-half month period, 19 kilos of class A drugs were dealt, raking in over £1 million.
Running the business from ‘some distance’ he used contacts from Spain and engaged in multi-kilo deals of heroin and cocaine on a regular basis. Working ‘little and often’, he had knowledge of when imports of the drugs were coming in and would broker a deal with customers in the UK.
Messages uncovered following the interception by authorities showed he had frequent contact with Anthony Davies and Stuart Shears.
Davies would pick up the goods to be broken down and sold on the streets, and Shears would source adulterants in bulk, which would be used to reduce the purity of the drugs.
In the messages they discussed debtors lists, with some users owing up to five figures. Other messages centre around specific deals of drugs, as well as times and places of when the drugs would be coming into the UK.
At the time, late March 2020, it coincided with the first national lockdown.
"Ferrari received a lot of messages from various handles saying that people in ‘chemicals and medicals’ were getting priority and the country was ‘stretched’,” Mr Ford said.
“One such message read: “No one has TP”. TP meaning transport. The excessive messages showed that Ferrari and Davies were involved in the logistics of moving the product.”
Ferrari would message Davies of when they had ‘jobs’ coming in, how much they were and would tell him how much he was to be paid.
“The messages showed that during the lockdown, this conspiracy thrived. They discussed how the police were patrolling motorway junctions and asking the public why they were out, and Ferrari said he was getting a van with a stash built in,” the prosecutor continued.
They also discussed ‘passing paper’, various debtors lists and said they had a target of making £50,000 a week. Shears, who acted as a ‘lone wolf’, also discussed various jobs with Ferrari.
Shears stepped up to lead after Ferrari's home raided
Later, when the group got wind that the French authorities could possibly be planning to intercept the system, they spoke about moving to a different network and moving to Davies’ property in Spain. Ferrari also asked Davies if he had the email address of the ‘Encro guy’, or the ‘Geek’, who was described as a senior figure involved in the actual devices.
It was June when the devices were hacked, and following that, officers from Greater Manchester Police searched Ferrari’s home and discovered over £100,000 worth of high value clothes, footwear and jewellery. From there he took a ‘step back’, but Shears and Davies continued in a further drug dealing enterprise.
The court heard that from September 2020 to January 2021, Shears led the enterprise, with Davies as his lieutenant and Callum Hunt as a trusted associate. Together they used two houses of vulnerable addicts to house, bag up and store heroin and cocaine throughout Moston and Harpurhey.
Ryan Roberts and Steven Aronwich, also drug users and both in debt, also became involved in the bagging up process. Following police raids at the houses, the two homeowners were both arrested and were handed suspended sentences for conspiracy to supply drugs.
At one house, officers found one-and-a-half kilos of heroin, scales and a large amount of bulk adulterants. At the other they found a kilo of cocaine.
GMP continued investigating Shears and Davies following the collapse of Encrochat, and surveillance showed that Shears took more of an ‘organisational role’ and Davies acted as the ‘boots on the ground’.
Hunt was involved on an operational level, and Roberts (who is Davies’ brother) and Aronwich were involved in the preparing and packaging into smaller dealers for onward selling.
Shears appeared to live in ‘luxury’ at a recently refurbished home in Cheadle Hulme, running the business from a distance. He was regularly spotted going to the two houses, picking up drugs and collecting money. He would also take some of the ill-gotten gains to his sister’s house in Blackley.
In November, Davies, Aronwich and Roberts met up in a city centre car park, but as police moved in Roberts temporarily escaped before he told officers: “It’s coming up to Christmas, I’ve got no choice.”
Aronwich was found with wraps of heroin hidden in his underwear. Following this the two houses were searched, leading to seizures of the drugs, equipment and cash.
“On January 5 2021, Shears visited his sister before heading into the city centre to meet with Hunt at the Easy Hotel,” Mr Ford continued.
They stayed there for 40 minutes before leaving, and when Hunt was arrested he was found with a key to a room that had been rented out under a different name. He was also found with a handwritten debtors list showing some customers owing up to five figures. Also on the note was a heading under ‘Lancs’ suggesting the business was progressing beyond Manchester.
It is believed they had been going through the gang's accounts and counting money.
Shears was followed to Tweedle Hill Road, Blackley, where three 1kg blocks of cocaine and £167,000 in cash were found - some of the money was found in a bathtub with a large amount stuffed into a sofa.
When officers searched the Stockport home of Shears they found around £2,000 in cash in the master bedroom, a special edition Pinarello Dogma bicycle valued at over £10,000 and a Wattbike valued at around £3,000.
All of the men, except Ferrari, were said to have previous convictions for drug offences.
Mitigating for Shears, Richard Simons said his client accepted playing a leading role. He added that the ‘luxury home’ he was living at in Cheadle Hulme belonged to his most recent partner.
For Ferrari, Daniel Travers said he was of previous good character and he had no previous experience of the drug dealing business.
For Davies, Oliver Cook said his client wasn’t involved in the brokering of the drugs, rather the ‘logistics’ on a ground floor level. He said he initially got involved to pay off debts.
Of Hunt, Ian McMeekin said he had known Davies, his sister Chelsea and Ryan Roberts since they were school children. He said he had a ‘trusted position’ but was living in the hotel at the time.
The court heard that both Roberts and Aronwich were drug users who’d gotten into debt, and were both offered work bagging up drugs to pay it back.
All six men now behind bars
In sentencing, the Recorder of Manchester, Judge Nicholas Dean KC, said: “Encrochat messages are not synonymous with sophistication but they are synonymous with scale.”
Ferrari, of Alcester Close, Middleton, was jailed for 12 years, for conspiracy to supply class A drugs and money laundering.
Shears, of Ravenoak Road, Cheadle Hulme, was jailed for 12 years, for conspiracy to supply class A drugs, assisting an offender and money laundering.
Davies, of Gisburne Avenue, Moston, was jailed for 12 years, for conspiracy to supply class A drugs and money laundering,
Hunt, of Caen Avenue, Moston, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years, for conspiracy to supply class A drugs and money laundering.
Roberts, of Branston Road, Moston, was jailed for five years and nine months, for conspiracy to supply class A drugs and escape from lawful custody.
Aronwich, of Anfield Road, Moston, was jailed for five years and two months, for conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Anthony Burgess, 38, of Gisburne Avenue, Moston, and Frances Drury, 64, Thorveton Square, Moston, both pleaded guilty in September 2021 to allowing premises to be used and received 15 months imprisonment, suspended for 24 months.
Victoria Shears, 44, of Tweedle Hill Road, Blackley, pleaded guilty to assisting in the commission of an indictable offence and was given an 18-month community order and put on a mental health treatment programme for 12 months, in November 2021.
Chelsea Davies, 30, of Gisburne Road, Moston, also pleaded guilty to assisting in the commission of an indictable offence and was given a 12-month community order, 120 hours of unpaid work and ordered to attend a rehabilitation programme.
Speaking after the hearing, Detective Chief Inspector Claire McGuire, of GMP's Serious Crime Division, said: "We have taken out a drugs line from top to bottom that not only removes a number of drug dealers from the street but also their drugs.
"This was a complete operation with drugs coming in from Europe, from Spain and the Netherlands, cut with a mixing agent and then distributed via a network of street sellers.
"They made a massive profit from mixing the drugs and selling it on the streets."
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