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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Lydia Morris & Lee Grimsditch

Drug dealer will only pay back £1k of £156,000 he made selling crack and heroin

A Liverpool drug dealer will only be made to pay back a fraction of the money he made from his criminal earnings.

James Thomas Morris, of Hadleigh Road, Kirkby was convicted in October last year as part of an operation to catch an organised gang flooding hard drugs into Deeside, reports North Wales Live.

Operation Blue Elixir was a three-year investigation by North Wales Police into the county lines drug gang from Merseyside.

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The gang of six men and one woman conspired to bring heroin and crack cocaine into Holywell, Flint and Bagillt between November 2017 and February 2020.

In total, the gang flooded the area with up to £243,000 worth of drugs and, between them, they are thought to have made well over £200,000 from their illegal business.

Morris’ criminal benefit was calculated at £156,718.23.

However, he will only end up paying back the “available amount” of £1,043.25 - including £846 in cash and items of property - under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).

It comes after investigators found Morris only possessed a fraction of the estimated proceeds following an “extensive investigation” of his finances.

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Judge Timothy Petts said should circumstances change and more money is recovered, the prosecution can ask the court to look at the available figure again.

Morris, who was jailed for six years and three months for conspiring to supply heroin and cocaine, must repay the money within the next three months or he will face an additional month in jail.

James Morris is thought to have earned over £150,000 from selling crack and heroin (North Wales Police)

The criminal benefit calculated by the police and CPS is a figure by which they say you benefited via property, goods, cash and other things from your criminal enterprise.

Orchestrated by kingpin Ryan Hamid - known as ‘Ste’ or ‘Badger’ - the enterprise used eight 'graft' phones to carry out deals.

It was taken over by Morris when Hamid was away.

The pair recruited Wade Doolan and Stuart Ashton, who was a “heavily addicted” customer, to sell on their behalf.

Morris would be driven around by his girlfriend, Beth Parker, as he collected cash and dropped off more drugs for Doolan to sell.

Sean Baxter and Daniel Delaney were allegedly the “street dealers” for the conspiracy, both using conspiracy vehicles to carry out business.

Delaney is understood to be appearing in court on April 30 to agree amounts he needs to repay.

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