Nine men involved in UK-wide cocaine supply plot worth more than £35m, jury told

Nine men were involved in a “truly massive” UK-wide cocaine supply plot which saw multiple 1kg consignments of the drug trafficked into Cumbria and stored in a Lakes lock-up, a jury has heard.

Carlisle Crown Court was told on 15 January how vast quantities of the illicit substance - generally shipped into the country from overseas into ports and then transported to the Greater Manchester and Liverpool areas - were distributed by criminal couriers to many towns and cities across the British mainland.

Their destinations included Newcastle and also the south Lakes, where one of the plotters, 31-year-old Reece Barnes, of Elim Grove, Bowness-on-Windermere, kept the cocaine in a lock-up near his home.

“The quantities of drugs in the overall conspiracy in this case are truly massive,” prosecutor Tim Evans told a crown court jury.

“The scope of the overall conspiracy is countrywide. It features Blackpool and the Fylde coast, it features Yorkshire, various places in the Midlands, South Wales and various parts of England, Wales and Scotland.

Evidence pointed to two main criminal players - Simon Buller, 45, of Freshfield Avenue, Atherton; and Andrew Stephens, 41, of East Field Drive, Golborne, near Wigan - moving 232kg between them during an illegal enterprise which ran for almost 15 months, from 1 March, 2022, and 25 May last year.

Other people had been involved in the movement of a further 70kg or 80kg, taking the total amount to at least the 300kg mark.

A total wholesale value of the haul was said to be in the region of £6 million, with a police drug expert estimating the street value of cocaine transported during the overall criminal enterprise being somewhere between £35 million and £53 million.

The focus of detectives was first trained on Cumbria as multiple 1kg shipments were brought into Windermere and three men were arrested and brought before Carlisle Crown Court.

The cocaine had been supplied to Barnes, who stored cocaine in the lockup ahead of onward supply; with Cain Turner, 32, of no fixed address, involved as a “highly active courier”; and Stephen Stockall, 62, of Well Lane, Weaverham, Northwich, a dealer.

“Much of the evidence you will hear in this trial will be to do with the movement of drugs into Windermere,” said Mr Evans.

“Once the police get the first two or three (people) in this case, they can then look at phones, they look at webs of contact that spread out from this, starting in Windermere. It spread out countrywide and blew up massively, quantity-wise.”

Cane Turner; Anthony Warhurst, 58, of Knowsley Street, Leigh; Thomas Whittaker, 45, of Brierfield, Digmoor, Skelmersdale; and Michael Evans, 36, of no fixed address; all seemed to operate as couriers of the drug in “very significant quantities”, said the prosecutor.

A ninth man, Daryll Preston, 36, of Hampson Street, Atherton, had acted as a middleman.

All nine, jurors heard, have admitted conspiring to supply the class A controlled drug.

A 10th man, 33-year-old Scott Owen, of Salisbury Way, Wigan, denies that he played any part in the conspiracy.

Evidence, said Mr Evans, showed he had been in contact and socialised with some of those who had admitted their guilt.

“Was this defendant (Owen) also playing an active role in the conspiracy?” Mr Evans asked jurors.

“He says not. He is having his trial. You decide that.

“You don’t hold against him the fact that other people have pleaded guilty. You know there is a conspiracy. You still have to decide whether he is part of it as well.”

After Mr Evans’ opening of the case concludes tomorrow, the jury will begin hearing evidence.

The trial continues.

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