[Music] the best wood cartel now exercised control over a number of pubs in the best wood and ball well area extorting protection money and laundering cash for its books colin and david gunn were now the masters of creating fear to suit their ends both played football for their favorite pup the scots grey and during one sunday league match in march of 2003 at balwell hall van the visiting team received a reminder of the gun brothers intimidation skills the jolly farmers football team walked into their dressing room ahead of the match to find a severed pig’s head in a plastic bag with the message screwed in blood welcome to hell somebody had acquired it from a local butcher the opposition team lost their spot suffering a 3-2 defeat after extra time the jolly farmer’s team secretary jeff best was urged to make an official complaint to the fa but was less than enthusiastic we have got nothing to say was his only comments after the match the scots grey pub had been frequently used by the gumbroomers any trouble which flared up on the premises was rarely dealt with by the police in february 1999 a 35 year old man was stabbed several times outside the pub in a friday night fast when the police went to see him he told them from his hospital bed they had no idea who his attacker was and he did not want them to take it any further he was as he pointed out already in poor shape and knew that talking to the police would be bad for his health run down pubs that they operated which would otherwise have been boarded up and shut down were given at least some lease of life with the best with cartel behind them the cartel was also branching out colin had renewed his association with a family-run gang in the north of nottinghamshire who were equally as brutal in their methods and with jonathan quinn another nottingham criminal from the bilbar area who had branched out significantly from the cigarette and cannabis smuggling into class a importation and firearms to service the north of england john and rob doors were the generals of the doors  cartel based in mansfield and sutton in ashfield areas of nottinghamshire by 2001 they had come under investigation by law enforcement agencies who were surprised by the magnitude of their operation they ran a multi-million pound drugs empire from a small house in tudor street sutton and ashfield their modus operando was almost the blueprint of the best wood cartel with whom they enjoyed extensive links not least through john dawes who had worked with colin gunn some years earlier the door’s cartel would recruit young street dealers who  usually had addictions of their own to act as runners for them to enforce their rule of law their number one rule was that fear brought great loyalty if you could grab them by the balls their hearts and minds would follow like his pal colin gunn john dawes and screwed life with a legitimate working world and preferred the black economy where no taxes were paid other than to those higher up in the drug business ladder who could tax on you from 1991 until his arrest in 2005 there is no evidence that john dawes did a single day’s legitimate work he lived almost exclusively according to his own accounts as a jobless man claiming benefit his hot-headed brother rob who had a penchant for ordering the shootings of anyone who displeased him was operating from spain from 2002 onwards organizing shipments of cannabis resin and cocaine while the rest of the gang organized wholesale deliveries of amphetamines and heroin mainly from liverpool and runcorn until 2001 they operated almost undetected by any meaningful police probe or enforcement agency police in nottinghamshire launched operation normality in 2001 with the help of the national crime sport and customs investigators by 2003 it would receive additional resources with the sanctioning of operation starburst by law enforcement agencies in london it found that the doors cartel was made up of three generals john and rob dawes and gary hardy another mansfield man whose father had been high up in the command chains of the midlands hell angels chapter these three leaders would take a freeway split on each shipment with rob organizing the smuggling of cocaine and cannabis from spain and john organizing its distribution across the midlands as well as the wholesale importation of amphetamines from holland and heroin from within britain in addition the doors cartel was operating with anthony handley and keith harrison over cannabis shipments into the uk these were handled by john and rob’s father arthur by 2001 this close-knit group was importing so many drugs into nottinghamshire but they had a backlog so they began to bury large amounts underground in coded locations in woodlands in sutton ashfield at sutton lawn mapplewell’s recreation park and in the woodland near pleasely police would eventually find five hundred thousand pounds buried in woodland highs near sutton parkway train station together with a sauna shotgun and animation the burial grounds for the drugs remain hidden to this day on the 1st of june 2001 investigators made their first major inroad into the gang officers lay in way as two doors cartel lieutenants drove to colwick industrial estate on the outskirts of nottingham police were staggered by the scale of the drug running they also discovered inside the industrial unit was around 100 kilos of amphetamines 6 kilos of cannabis resin and 11 kilos of paracetamol cutting agents enough to make 30 kilos of heroin ready for sale on the street jonathan guest ian butler and martin smith were all taken out by the police within a few days all were linked to the production at colwick which was used to cut cocaine heroin and amphetamines as well as to manufacture ecstasy pills and store cannabis john doe decided it was time for a holiday a break on the cost of the crime would enable him to rethink strategies as well as lincoln of his brother rob who spent regular breaks in spain and was laundering their money in two bars and a restaurant supply business near foot and growler he would be able to decide whether new recruits were needed and whether to put the scare into those who were arrested fear was needed to ensure that those who had been lifted by the police did not lead it to his door john and rob doors flew out to magola with some haste in june of 2001. john had rented a villa for nine months hoping that the police interest would eventually disappear he flew back to the uk in september of 2001 to test the water police just kept watching knowing that if they bodied more time it would all be revealed they had taken out their middle tier of the dwarves pyramid and the gangs general were running scared now john dawes was relying on a 23 year old to be one of his lieutenants ryan smith would take on the role on a legal front the arrested mr guest mr butler and mr smith were all beyond help for john dawes he just hoped that the fear that he and rob had installed into them would be enough to prevent them from grasping for more favorable sentences when their case eventually reached nottingham crown corps in january 2002 mr guest admitted conspiracy to supply amphetamines and cannabis as well as possessing 150 000 pounds of heroin he was in prison for 14 years mr butler who admitted possession of heroin with intense support received eight years mr smith whose fingerprints were all over the coalwick industrial estate and who was caught with a carrier bag stained with heroin and with 22 000 pounds hidden in his pantry received four years at the same time as the national crime squad officers were tackling this lower end of the doors cartel they had come across links to another gang smuggling large amounts of cannabis from holland and belgium via the north sea keith red harrison and anthony nottingham tone handily had come to the attention of the dutch police investigating the perplexing murder of a middle-aged schoolteacher on the 24th of november 2002 52 year old jared meesters answered his front door in a quiet area of groningen he was surprised to find five men outside one handed him a phone number on a torn off packet of red rizzler cigarette papers they spoke with english accents and the message was this you are jared meesters your sister janet has done something bad she has stolen something from us you must ring this number in spain and tell the man who answers the phone where your sister is be aware that if you do not do this we will come back and if we have to come back it will not be for a chat jared was shaking in fear he had never been involved in crime in his life he knew his sister had gone off the rails but he had no more idea where she was than the hoods who had visited him jared contacted the dutch police and told them what happened they told him he should take the threat very seriously and consider moving out of his home temporarily overnight jared moved himself his wife and their two children police kept watch on the property for a couple of days but were not there when four days later jared decided he needed to use his computer and returned home to oranstra a sleepy suburban street as he opened his front door to leave at 7 22 pm on the 28th of november 2002 he was approached by a man who pulled out a handgun and shot him eight times dutch investigators were baffled by the murder here is a man who has no criminal background and has been living a very quiet life but as their intentions turned towards his sister jeannette they slowly began to unravel a criminal network which centered on the doors cartel they placed telephone intercepts on the phones of certain dutch criminals who soon threw up the names of nottingham tony and red harrison as well as rob and john dawes through a massive total of 20 000 phone calls analyzed 95 of which were in basic drugs code they had stumbled upon another huge syndicate sending drugs from holland and belgium into the uk what they learned from the books was that jeannette maestas had become embroiled in the criminal network whilst living in spain and had become working as a courier for the doors cartel in autumn of 2002 jeannette and her friend madeline bruce had been given the job of driving a van from spain to holland carrying a large amount of cannabis the couple were pulled over by dutch police on suspicion of drink driving after they were alerted to the erratic behavior of the van inside police discovered more than 350 kilos of cannabis when robbed doors found out about the drugs bust he exploded with rage it was a shipment intended for nottingham tony and was supposed to be around 1.5 tons of cannabis according to the evidence later given in court mr dawes had made the assumption that the rest of the drugs must have been stolen by the two women he set about trying to locate them and sent a message to daniel soaby a 47 year old heroin addict who had been working for the gang since the absconding from prison in 2000. the message was clear put the frighteners on  the relatives and family of these two and we will smoke them out if the woman doesn’t do anything we’ll take it to the next stage mr soberbee recruited a man called stephen barnes as his driver and the two men began to trace the relatives of miss meesters and miss bruce first they paid a visit to meester’s old brother jarrah mr swababy and mr barnes  returned to groningen in the 28th of november mr barnes later said that he had not told the reason for the visit to the city and claimed he thought he was for a drugs room around 7 15 pm that night mr soberbee who was living under an assumed name with a false passport in breda a city in southern holland took a handgun from a bag and left the car while mr barnes waited for him a few minutes later mr soebe returned and shouted at mr ban go go go let’s get out of here what the [ __ ] is going on mr barnes asked mr sobe replied i’ve been told to kill somebody which i have that’s all you need to know the duo stopped on their way back to the safe house in breda and mr sobe dumped the murder weapon their victim was jared meesters a week later madeleine bruce’s mother ex-husband and boyfriend received a note telling them to contact the same spanish phone number given to jared meesters along with a note were cuttings from a newspaper which detailed mr meester’s murder the implications for the family should they not call the phone number were clear dutch police set up surveillance on the family’s properties in the summer of 2003 relatives received another note warning  them to tell them where madeleine was or their lives would be in serious danger police set about forensically testing the material which had been sent in the post incredibly mr soaby had failed to check the material he posted to the brunson family was clean and mr barnes who was known to the dutch police had left his fingerprint on one of the newspaper clippings investigators revealed that mr barnes had since been arrested and was serving a 16-month prison term for a fatal road accident in rotterdam after driving whilst drunk and high on cocaine mr sowerby had been also locked up for drug offences police visited mr barnes first and he confessed to driving mr soaby to the scene of the assassination mr barn said he had initially been sent to amsterdam by the doors cartel because he had stolen 42 grams of heroin from them he was told he would have to pay off his drug death by doing errands for them in holland and he was ordered to become a runaround for mr sober after he ferried mr sowerby to the scene of jared’s murder he fled to spain where rob dawes had ordered him for a debriefing the debriefing session ended with him being severely beaten with an iron bar he suffered several broken limbs mr barnes was told he would be  killed if he even ever mentioned the murder a dutch court gave mr barnes who was described as a victim of a criminal organization an eight year sentence for his involvement in mr meester’s murder he had known the doors brothers from school and made a number of visits to amsterdam with rob doors acting as a drug tester before being exiled to holland to repay his heroin debts his lawyer pointed out that once he became a soldier for the gang he could not just leave his life and the lives of his family would be in grave danger if he was arrested or tried to flee the gang would assume that he was a risk and could compromise their operation mr soaby who was described by the dutch judge as a very dangerous man was sentenced to life imprisonment he had already spent much of his life behind bars he had previously been given a life sentence in the uk for the brutal murder of a 66 year old harold birdle who had been beaten to death during a burglary in lincolnshire in december 1977 mr sowerby had fled north sea camp open prison in 2001 before initially going on the run in france and then in holland where he was recruited by the doors cartel both men refused to give any details of the people they were looking for i have to think of my family and my relatives said mr sober if i confess to the murder i have no life anymore then i fear for the lives of my brothers nephews and nieces i will never confess mr barnes said what happened to gerald meesters is not unusual these people know how to deliver pain in your life throughout the investigation dutch police were only able to speak to jeanette misters once while she was in spain before they lost contact we have no idea where these two women are one investigator said the trail ended in spain we don’t know whether they’re alive or dead the spin-off for the national crime squad investigators in the uk was that as a result of the dutch phone taps they now knew that the door’s cartel was a ruthless calculating gang willing to murder on the same scale as the best wood cartel and they were dealing in a much larger quantity and with much more networks than they’d previously been fought the telephone taps had also thrown up a link between large-scale drug shipments flowing from spain hollom and belgium and these cartels ran by the doors family keith harrison and anthony handley and the best good cartel all the roads were leading back to nottinghamshire and southern spain where robbed doors were still holed up in the near town of fruing roller operation normality the probe into the door’s cartel was in full swing after bringing down some of the doors lieutenant and realizing that the qatar was bigger than they thought officers began to take a closer look at the financial transactions of the gang they found more than 8.5 million pounds going through their hands between november 2002 and june 2003 in addition members of the gang were locked on more than 40 flights coming in and out of magala and amsterdam over a two and a half year period in the midst of operation normality nottinghamshire police had to deal with the murder of david draco who was shot dead outside his home in sutton ashfield in october 2002 over a thirty thousand pound debt to the best wood cartel and doors gang john dawes was given the police liaison officer on the basis that he might be at risk because people believed he was linked to the murder mr dawes even had the cheek to offer the detective constable a job in 2002 he telephoned the officer when are you due to hang up the truncheon he said you know we are always on the lookout for lads like yourself you know due for retirement with the kind of stuff you could help us with you would shoot up the promotional ladder in our organization as officers listened in to calls between the group they heard the coded names behind mystery figures and the cartel that they were dealing with the fishermen the  hoitawa special bill and carlos as the arrest began to take place in 2003 police also managed to turn some of the cartels drug runners despite the threats of violence which were being leveled at them against them crucially it led to four runners richard carrington mark simpson lee blackmore and christian babsby giving detailed accounts of how the car tower that she operated mark simpson told the police how he had been recruited by john dawes after coming out of prison in january 2002 two months later he and a friend agreed to sell heroin for john doe anything they made above 750 pound per ounce would be profit a meeting took place at which mr dawes and gary hardy were present and outline the areas that the runners could sell in mr dawes told mr simpson he would let him sell heroin in sutton and ashfield and that another man would handle kirby in ashfield mr simpson always took the money to mr dawes usually at his house in tudor street but once at a public house on two occasions he picked up 10 kilos of amphetamine and mr dawes told him where to drop them but some of the speed went missing and mr doors exploded with rage ten minutes later jon dawes came round and batted me around the head with a kosh then they got my hands and smashed him said mr simpson i was absolutely terrified i’d even soiled myself he said that mr dawes had beaten him senseless with a basal bat on another two occasion if you lie to john he hit you he was an absolute psychopath richard carrington told the police how he worked as a courier for rob doors from 2000 until 2002. mr carrington was also involved with john dawes and saw him operating an electric money counter machine at his house putting notes into bundles of one thousand pounds in 2001 mr carrington went to the colwick unit used for making ecstasy tablets and cutting cocaine and amphetamines to pick up some drugs he told police how he would usually pat the drugs under a spare wheel on john dawes shogun 4×4 among the other tasks carried out by mr carrington were shipping of drugs to rugby and manchester and moving the money to holland and spain for rob mr carrington would fly from heathrow  east midlands and gatwick airport to amsterdam and magala with wads of cash secreted in his shoes or in the false linings of suitcases lee blatmore was released from prison in june 2000 and began selling heroin for himself before jon dawes told him he would have to work for the cartel or suffer serious consequences mr blackmore told the police how mr dawes used a myriad of burial sites safe houses and runners mark simpson would collect heroin from matlock and bring mr blackmore seven ounces a week which he divided into half grand bags he paid mr simpson after a while mr barnsby replaced mr simpson and supplied mr blackmore both mr barnsby and mr blackmore became very stressed after a load of heroin went missing and at first mr barnsby went on the run he eventually walked into the police station to confess everything closely followed by mr blackmore mr baumsby’s role was to take heroin to mr blackmore and then divide it into ounces they were supplying two or three people every day with an ounce of heroin selling it at 900 pounds per tonne it would be collected from the tesco car part in nottingham once a month mr barmsby would make a profit of 75 pounds per each ounce sold he also collected amphetamines from the same place in nottingham the smallest quantity being 2 or 4 kilos and the largest being 20 kilos like mark simpson he suffered from the gang leaders uncontrollable rages mr barnsby told the police how jon dawes beat him up badly because he did not like the girl that mr bonzi was going out with the door’s brothers 59 year old father arthur eddie dawes poses an antique dealer even allowing another essex based cocaine gang with close links to the doors cartel to use his addresses for bogus businesses between 1997 and his arrest in 2003 arthur claimed thousands of pounds in disability benefit but appeared to be quite capable of helping his son transport drugs from place to place he lived in in gold mells on the lincolnshire coast in a modest house in central avenue with his partner rebecca bridge when police eventually raided the property they found ten thousand pounds in cash two banknote counting machines and a dutch mobile phone beside a bedside cabinet in another room was a hold hall with two maps one of barcelona and one of santander with hotels marked in rings in a sideboard cupboard in the living room was a 2003 diary with the entries in and out for the period from february to the 12th of june and references to names places and flights also in the lounge were a large number of receipts for mobile phone cards 10 phone chargers and a number of other items among the items in ms bridge’s handbag was a book containing a number of phone numbers in a mixture of hers and arthur’s handwriting and the names of middle tier suppliers which had come from anthony handley after doors had also been observed at newport paganal service station on the m1 motorway handing over a tesco’s call back to the driver of a black london cab the cab was pulled over as it left the service station and police found one hundred thousand pounds in the back mr door said that the money was for anthony handley by late spring with a number of arrests having already broken the gang down the door’s cartel began to unravel first as a result of an accident on the 29th of april 2003 one of its couriers crashed its car containing two kilos of heroin analysis of a mobile phone in the car showed a link with a major drug supplier donnie quinn then john dawes himself was arrested having lost many of his troops he had been forced to get hands on in the operation on the 23rd of may 2003 the police saw his fellow boss gary hardy driving a black porsche near sutton ashfield it paused at the junction long enough to give the impression that it was waiting there before pulling around the corner the police then saw jon doors at the passenger door he got into the vehicle police saw body movement in the porsche as if something was being handed over and moved in as mr dawes stood on the pavement with a carrier bag and the porsche drove off arresting mr dawes as he got into his car the carrier bag had contained 14 000 pounds in cash other members of the gang were also rounded up including arthur dawes rebecca bridge and roy smith who had been acting as one of john thor’s lieutenants tony handley and red harrison were the next to trip  up 33 year old mr handley who was also known as spunky worked with mr harrison as the kingpin in charge of distributing drugs including ecstasy amphetamines cocaine and cannabis to the west of the uk after they had been imported from holland and belgium when their dutch counterparts informed them that mr handley and mr harrison’s names had  turned up on books connected with the murder of jared meesters the national crime squad officers from the midlands launched operation shearson against them in 2003. mr hanley and mr harrison had got to know one another while serving time in hmp north camp c in lincolnshire mr hanley was in for an armed robbery and mr harrison was in for manslaughter mr hanley was an unlikely villain his father was heavily involved with a hypno church and mr hanley had been trained as an accountant himself when he partnered the opening of a sports shop in march 1995 there was little sign of him becoming heavily involved in organized crime he even gave away its first 100 pounds to help gladesdale school in billsborough helped replace sports equipment which was destroyed in a fire but the business went under leaving mr hanley to consider crime as an option to obtain the wealth he saw his first major brush with the law came in february 2000 when he was convicted of an armed robbery along with two others dale roy who he would later recruit for the drugs business and keith stanleyland a 33 year old from huff weight the trio jumped robert bolan in his ford transit and relieved him at gunpoint of 160 000 cigarettes on the a610 near gilbert on the 2nd of november 1999. it was while serving some of his sentence at hmp north sea camp that mr hanley hooked up with mr harrison after absconding from prison mr harrison using the false identity graham harley managed to get a face passport and driving licence and disappear into obscurity in amsterdam he had been involved with ecstasy shipments before and clearly found he could make even greater profits being in holland his name first cropped up in dutch investigations into frankie’s peter beekmans a wholesale supplier of drugs in holland when the name of an englishman called red turned up on these tapes they discovered mr harrison’s real identity and a link was subsequently made to jared meester’s murder mr harrison was shipping drugs to mr hanley after buying them from mr beakman’s who was based in the city of tilburg mr harrison had looked up other friends from hmp north sea camp to assist in the uk distribution and these included a number of people from nottinghamshire mr hanley would arrange for the drugs to be transported over by lorry mr harrison only had to secure a space in a lorry driven by somebody who innocently thought they were carrying a legitimate load millions of pounds worth of drugs would be shipped over to felix though on a ferry from rotterdam in taped up cardboard boxes mr harrison was also shipping drugs for other gangs including the best with cartel and jonathan donny quinn it was easy to then use mr hanley for some of that distribution he would meet the loads and arrange distribution throughout the east midlands west midlands and london the pair soon enjoyed a very lavish lifestyle mr harrison had swanky apartments in amsterdam and breda and both men drove around in mercedes and audi tt’s mr hanley would talk on his mobile phones while sipping a latte in an internet cafe in hooknell on the edge of nottingham listening to mr harrison complain how bored he was in holland and reveal how he spent up to eleven thousand pounds a night on rauch’s night’s hour in the red light district picking up expensive hookers while his wife was back home in the uk much of their talk was monitored by the national crime squad and it was to do with drug shipments the duo used basic code words in their phone conversations cannabis was referred to as a bitter green speeds or amphetamines were then fast things ecstasy tablets were the little ones and cocaine was the expensive stuff however mr harrison who at first became rash when things went wrong with sometimes failed to stick to the agreement on the code words particularly when a shipment was intercepted and were taught explicitly about coke and speed one officer said mr harrison was a billy nomix who only got friends by paying for high class hookers his phone became his best friend and that was his undoing even when he couldn’t get through he left the trail he just couldn’t resist ringing people up who we could then link to the trade through the mapping of the phones when he did get through he was often saying things that played right into our hands mr hanley sent danger and halted calls with mr harrison with his main contact suddenly unattainable mr harrison turned to help from his old friend donald jane an associate from his west midlands days of petty crime and now an underworld figure in birmingham he agreed to arrange the next shipment and approach michael sawwith a boat skipper with two previous convictions for drug importation mr james paid around five thousand pounds towards the higher of mr sauer’s 21 foot speedboat the sundancer which set out from ransgate in kent in august 2003 to make the pickup at a military yacht club in newport on the belgium coast also on board was stephen boa an old acquaintance of mr harrison whose job it was to keep an eye on the skipper and the drugs at the same time mr harrison drove from his home in breda with a ford focus filled with drugs accompanied by his dutch supplier mr beacons mr beacon’s brother-in-law and another unnamed dutchman were in a separate vehicle following he met mr sword and mr bowers with the sundancer and all three men headed back to holland the national crime squad and their dutch and belgium colleagues knew all about it not only did they have the phone’s taps in place but they also had infiltrated the gang belgium police arrested mr harrison and  his english accomplices who were later extradited to the uk while the dutchmen were arrested back in holland in england the national crime squad picked up donald james mr beekmans known as the tillerman would later receive a six and a half year sentence and his brother-in-law would receive three years for his involvement after being spooked  a feeling which was proved to be correct by the arrest of his pal in belgium mr hanley went on the run holding up in a thirty thousand pound caravan in a remote park in scarborough in yorkshire for six months he watched and waited with the national crime squad having little idea where he was on phone taps they heard that mr hanley was about to get married the detectives began ringing round registry offers around the country nothing turned up locally so one offers a joke that he was probably going to get married on grant for green the scottish border town famous for his quirky marriages as detective inspector john cullen who led the investigation recalled we had tried more obvious locations in sutton ashfield and not new it was a process of elimination then somebody had the inspiration of checking the most obvious location granted green and lo and behold they were right on the morning of the 1st of december 2003 at the mill hotel on the outskirts of grenfer green a party of eight gathered ready for a noon wedding ceremony in the chapel on the grounds a few minutes before the start mr hanley still nursing a bruiser of a hangover and feeling uncomfortably paranoid was getting ready with his best man who joked about any last request his bride was in another room alone looking forward to a future with a man she felt she could keep in her material manner which she had become accustomed to over the last few years but when officers moved in to make the arrest it was all over within a space of minutes mr hanley did not resist the 33 year old later told police i knew the game was up when i looked out the window and i saw a broad-shouldered man go past a delighted d.i could lip said he was surprised to see us he didn’t say very much he was trying to keep his dad at bed the gang was dealt with at birmingham crown corps in april 2005. keith winston eugene harrison originally from coventry was sentenced to eight years in prison whilst mr hanley was sentenced to five and a half years other members of the hook mill trafficking ring were jailed for a combined total of more than 20 years these foot soldiers all employed by mr hanley included mark ford a 32 year old from bulwell who was known as joe 90 or goggles because he wore spectacles mr ford was jailed for three years he had been arrested with two of her defendants in july 2003 with a consignment of drugs on the m1 near northampton mr ford also received an extra six months producing cannabis at a property he owned in nottingham allen ostrich man walker a 62 year old from cochgrave near nottingham received an 18-month center he had been involved in a huge ostrich farm fraud in nottinghamshire which had made more than 20 million pounds in less than 17 months by duping people into buying shares he became involved in the gang as a result of his time at north sea camp prison and agreed to fly over to britain from his home in nice france in 2003 to transport drugs for mr handley he was arrested in new market driving a van containing 85 kilos of cannabis adrian haywood a 36 year old from underwood got six years for supplying mobile phones and transporting for the trafficking he was a motor trader with a workshop in summer coast derbyshire officers found 37 500 ecstasy tablets in a search of the premises dale roy 31 from skegbee who was the security man for the batches of drugs held in various locations received three years while michael the giza sawwood 57 who had lived on the houseboat in kent got six years after being hired to take his speedboat to belgium to collect drugs for mr harrison stephen little basboa 35 from grantham received four years he acted as a runner and a security man holding drugs and going on trips to belgium with mr boa and after becoming seasick had it unwittingly ensured the entire group decided to prolong their stay at newport until he recovered they were there when police swooped the next morning subsequent drug seizures included 1.9 million pounds of cannabis in felixstowe and 1.2 million ecstasy tablets worth 4.8 million pounds in holland by the end of operation shearson police had doubt another big blow to the drug shipments being managed from nottinghamshire large amounts of class a drugs were seized in holland germany again brussels antwerp and birmingham with the help of customer exiles the operation sees 870 kilos of cannabis worth over 1.9 million pounds and 16 kilos of cocaine with a street value of 848 thousand pounds officers were ecstatic with the resource dismantling this well-established network is a major achievement and is down to the hard work and dedication of all the officers involved said d.i john could lit afterwards mr harrison and his cohorts have paid the heavy price of freedom for thinking that they could make easy money through drug trafficking and we hope this sends out a strong message to the others who attempted to do the same another of the gun’s associates donnie quinn had been building up a massive drugs operation of his own mr quinn was no stranger to the police and customs having been lifted several times in large-scale cigarette and cannabis smuggling busts but nothing had ever stuck he had based himself in the bilbray area of nottingham where in cockington road he had a large house which had been pimped up to make him the lord of the council of state such was the cheek of the man they had even had several former police officers from nottinghamshire who had branched out into the gardening services on their retirement willing to tend to his expensive garden for him he had already managed to wriggle out of major busts in october 1999 when 120 kilos of cannabis was found in a lorry in halfway one of the gang’s main men was a 31 year old terror petroplegia called nathan graham who had suffered a massive disability as a result of a driving accident mr graham would later die of a fatal asthma attack six days after being remanded in nottingham prison an inquest into his death recommended healthcare for disabled prisoners being much more improved the cannabis case had been dealt with by the national crime squad officers from derby and nottingham some of whom were later embroiled in a cocaine snorting scandal in 2001. when it came to court in september 2000 legal submissions were heard in chambers by a judge and the trial was abandoned although no reason was ever given publicly mr quinn still faced trial over a spectacular bust by customs and exiles at a warehouse on the banks of the river trent in august of 1999 investigators kept watch on a disused warehouse for several months as cigarettes were shipped in in their millions then a consignment worth more than two million pounds came in they swooped in some in high-powered rubber dinghy boats but he ended the four-week trial at nottingham crown court in march 2001 the jury was unable to reach a verdict a retrial was sought but had never materialized mr quinn perhaps now becoming overconfident launched himself into large-scale class a drug shipments and firearms using connections he had built up over the years he began assembling a formidable gang with some 20 trusted lieutenants spanning nottinghamshire in south yorkshire operation myopi was started in response by the national crime squads rugby branch in october 2003 and focused initially on the drug trafficking activities of mr quinn two of his lieutenants michael mcdonald who was then aged 35 from absolutely and jason wesley 35 from beeston and the network of couriers working in nottinghamshire it soon became apparent that the gang was involved in the supply and distribution of drugs between london nottingham and west yorkshire and had international link with mr quinn regularly visiting magala and spain initial surveillance showed that mr quinn was in regular contact over supplies with the door’s cartel as well as the best wood cartel he also had strong links with the underworld armors across the country and had access to  large caches of firearms something he would later attempt to use in his advantage among his gang was a real life robin hood actor mark dickinson who played the famous outlaw at the city’s tales of robin hood attraction during the early 1990s would later appear in a film version of macbeth with jason connery and brian blessed he had fallen on hard times after getting to know mr quinn mr dickinson who also lived in bilbray was offered a job doing runs for him and soon became one of his most trusted cocaine couriers the 39 year old was one of the first to be arrested during a three-year operation officers swooped on mr dixon and watched him drive to the broad oak pub in the village of australia on the 2nd of july 2004 where he met a lorry driver as he  left they pulled him over and discovered a kilo of cocaine in his car he would later be jailed for three years and nine months another gang member was a gulf war veteran from the meadows who had first served first battalion grenada’s guards in 1991 dean cumberpatch 34 was arrested after being caught driving a lorry with 150 kilos of cannabis for mr quinn and would later receive a two year sentence by may 2004 mr quinn had also became very good at money laundering he entered into a deal with a group of liverpool businessmen who ripped off the natwest bank to the tune of 15 million pounds in an elaborate fraud mr quinn became their banker the idea for the sophisticated get rich quick scheme came from a genuine letter sent to all the customers in the wake of natwest takeover by the royal bank of scotland it was a warning that wild check funds would still be shown as cleared on the third working day after being paid in they could still end up bouncing if the check was bad this was a signpost to the merseyside villains that it was possible to take money that didn’t actually exist from the account on the wednesday before the may bank holiday one of the merseyside group went into the st helens branch of natwest and placed 20 million pounds in bogus checks into accounts on the surface it was a legitimate deal the 38 000 nokia mobile phones by the friday well before the checks would show up as having been bounced the funds were waving their way through a number of other companies to disguise the origins and make it look like a legitimate financial transaction before arriving at a bank in rigor latvia it was an account mr quinn had opened in the name of alberton finance limited fortunately for nat west latvia had just joined the european union and had been warned to be on the lookout for money laundering activities realizing what was going on the banking authorities in latvia informed the city of london police the account was then frozen preventing the conspirators transferring much of the cast to dubai though altogether 14 million pounds of funds were cleared in latvia before the game was up mr quinn would later receive a three-year prison sentence at southwood crown court for the fraud to be added to his drug warrants meanwhile his drug smuggling operations were being doubt a severe blow as police took out the middle tier of his gang leaving mr quinn exposed although the gang was surveillance savvy regularly changing phones and using phone boxes it did not bank on the national crime squad bugging its higher cars when they went for a valid service every order mr quinn gave was picked up by the surveillance team throughout 2004 the main players in his gang were relentlessly targeted until mr quinn himself was eventually arrested once he was presented with all the bug material he threw in the towel and pleaded guilty altogether 21 members of the gang received a combined prison sentence of 117 years in 2006 mr quinn himself received an 18-year stretch for conspiracy to supply cocaine cannabis and amphetamines and a 12 and a half year sentence to run concurrently for the supply of ecstasy more than two million pounds worth of drugs have been discovered during operation myopia including six kilos of cocaine six kilos of ecstasy 160 kilos of cannabis and 25 kilos of amphetamines mr quinn was not happy about his sentence particularly as he had given the national crimes called officers information about free arm catches that he knew knowledge of he appealed on that basis but the judges pointed out that although the arms and ammunition had been discovered and that they had been important fines on the battle against organized crime no one had actually been arrested it is significant that having been in custody for 18 months the defendants still retain the ability to locate these weapons the appeal court judges said the implication was clear they were either his firearms or he was involved in their movement mr queen was struck with an 18-year prison sentence with donny quinn locked up and the doors cartel taken down colin and david gunn were running out of friends

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