Elite police unit hands down 2000 years prison time

Credit: PA

An elite police unit set up to take down the North-west's most hardened criminals is celebrating after reaching a landmark in the amount of prison time they've handed down.

'Titan', the Regional Organised Crime Unit, hit the 2000 year mark after former businesswoman Paula White from Manchester was jailed for nine years for running a website which sold millions of pounds of so-called 'legal highs' to thousands of people around the world.

Titan targets drug smugglers, gun runners, fraudsters, money launderers and cyber criminals

The unit, which is a collaboration of police officers and civilian support staff from the North-west's six individual police forces together with a range of multi-agency partners, is aiming to reach the 3000 year mark as it continues to target serious and organised crime in all its forms.

Some of their biggest operations to date are:

  • Operation Blenheim - 30-strong gang of Merseyside and Scottish criminals led by self-styled 'Scouse Pablo Escobar' father and son due Christopher Welsh Snr and Christopher Welsh Jnr jailed for a total of 300 years after TITAN cracked a £100 m heroin and cocaine trafficking conspiracy

  • Operation Redstart - notorious Liverpool brothers Stephen and Peter Clarke and their gang jailed for 115 years for selling £4m of heroin and cocaine to drug dealers in Cheshire, Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside as well as using an arsenal of hidden weapons to protect their lucrative criminal business

  • Operation Redbank - Warrington international drug trafficker Richard Woodhouse jailed for masterminding the importation and distribution of half a tonne of cocaine using a 22-strong gang of associates from Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. The gang were jailed for a total of 247 years and included Woodhouse's wife who Titan detectives proved was integral in the running of her husband's business while he was serving time in prison for... drug trafficking.

  • Operation Tarim - Rochdale-based crime group led by Jason Seale with right-hand man Byron Milne jailed for 92 years for importing Ectasy, amphetamines and cannabis into the UK from Holland hidden in food produce brought in on wagons