A high level organised crime network trafficked lorry loads of heroin between Liverpool and Scotland and ran an "industrial scale" amphetamines lab.
Four men are due to face sentence after the drugs ring was dismantled as part of the EncroChat encrypted phones hack. The Merseyside based firm was headed up by 48-year-old Terence Earle, a man the National Crime Agency (NCA) described as the "kingpin".
Earle, of Freckleton Road, St Helens, used EncroChat to organise the operation and enlisted the help of subordinates Stanley Feerick, 68, and Stephen King, 48.
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The NCA said in December 2020, Lancashire Police seized more than 560 kilos of a chemical called alpha-phenylacetoacetamide (APAA) - used in the production of amphetamine. Experts said that amount would have been capable of producing amphetamine worth £1.1million at the lab the group ran in Scotland.
That mammoth haul was found in a lorry which had been loaded from a warehouse at a caravan park in Weeton, Lancashire, on the orders of Feerick, of Longreach Road, Dovecot.
In March 2020, as the nation entered its first Covid 19 lockdown, Earle arranged for boxes of APAA which had been stored at the same warehouse to be loaded and driven to a garage in Motherwell.
EncroChat messages showed that Earle also oversaw the trafficking of heroin and cocaine from Scotland to Merseyside, and in the opposite direction, with the assistance of Lee Baxter, 48, of Devon Way, Huyton.
In November 2020, Feerick met King, of Dumbarton, south east of Glasgow, who helped with the production of amphetamines.
Shortly afterwards Feerick was arrested as he drove a lorry southbound on the M6 motorway and officers discovered a holdall, which was found to contain 2.9 kilos of heroin worth £300,000 alongside £20,000 in cash.
A search of Feerick’s home unearthed £9,370 in cash. Further EncroChat messages showed that the gang was also involved in the trafficking of cocaine from Scotland to England.
NCA officers arrested Earle, Feerick, Baxter and King in March last year. Earle admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine in both Scotland and England and production of class B drugs (amphetamines) at Liverpool Crown Court on October 3, where Baxter also admitted participating in the activities of an organised crime group.
Feerick initially denied his offending, before pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply class heroin and participating in the activities of an organised crime group contrary on December 5 before he was due to stand trial.
King was convicted by a jury of participating in the activities of an organised crime group yesterday (December 15) following an eight-day trial.
The men are due to be sentenced on January 18.
The NCA’s investigation formed part of Operation Venetic, the UK law enforcement response to the takedown of the EncroChat service by French and Dutch authorities in July 2020.
NCA Branch Commander Richie Davies said: "Terence Earle’s criminal organisation posed a serious threat to communities across Scotland and Merseyside They were determined to make money from producing or supplying illegal drugs, despite knowing the risk those drugs posed to users, and to many others affected by the violence and exploitation fuelled by the trade.
“Our investigation has dismantled their crime group, and demonstrates the NCA’s constant work to protect the public from the highest risk criminals impacting on the UK."
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