Two former drug addicts who were under the brutal rule of Liverpool gangs have told how their lives spiralled out of control into overdoses and multi-million pound trafficking deals.
The men have spoken of their involvement with so-called County Lines drug gangs - and how they were preyed on because of their drug addictions.
North Wales Live shared the remarkable stories of the two men, who became the victims of crime gangs in Liverpool, after they managed to get clean and rebuild their lives.
But here they tell how close they both came to oblivion through habits that lasted decades and left them in a vulnerable situation.
Tony Ormond, 45, spoke about how he went from using to peddling in order to feed his own habit.
'You’re a f*****g dead man. Not long now'
Tony, who managed to get himself clean after a long battle with addiction and become an award-winning drug support worker, said he had ended up homeless on the streets of North Wales.
He revealed he had been asked by gangs operating out of Liverpool to sell drugs in Colwyn Bay .
Tony said: "I was in Liverpool doing County Lines. I was in touch with some dealers, and when they heard that I used to live in North Wales, they asked if I would come out here for them.
"I thought, more drugs for me, so obviously it was a 'yes'.
"So, we started travelling to Colwyn Bay and packing drugs in an area that the sun doesn’t shine. About ten ounces, which was quite painful."
Tony said after one night of heavy drug use, he had been meant to call Liverpool to arrange further drug running. But out of fear, he smashed up the phone and ended up destitute, hiding out in empty holiday home.
He added: "I found a liberal doctor, who hand wrote me a script. I told her while I was fleeing violence in Liverpool and I had forgotten my big packets of Valium 10s.
"They said, 'how many mg a day are you on?’ I said 50mg, and they wrote it down.
"I said 'and also the three Zopiclone a night', and they wrote that down. 'And also my Mirtazapine and Chlorpromazine'.
"I just gave them a list of drugs, and they kept on writing."
He said he lost four days to a blackout after swallowing handfuls of the drugs he managed to get from the chemist.
But he said after his third heroin overdose, he had a "defining moment".
Tony said: "When I came out of the heroin overdose, that wasn’t the defining moment.
"I was smoking crack and blowing it into the little V between the curtains. It was making these colours, and I stopped and thought ‘wow, you almost died a week ago and this is the first time you’ve stopped long enough to think about it. You’re a f*****g dead man. Not long now'.
"I cried out for help, I couldn’t do it anymore. There was no divine moment, no spark of light but something inside me motivated me enough to try and seek some help.
"I remember my support worker saying 'you want to go into a detox centre? You’re chaotic.’ I said, 'if I could get stable in a community, I wouldn’t need detox’.
"He said, ‘Okay, assuming we let you in, you have to have a solid, robust aftercare plan.’
"He passed me the pen, and I wrote ‘will do 90 AA meetings in 90 days’.
"He said, 'That's not an aftercare plan’, and I said, ‘Have you ever been to AA?’ He said, 'No, why’, and I said, ‘Then you don’t have a f*****g clue what you’re going on about. That is my aftercare plan’.
"Jumping ahead, I was making a cup of tea with this guy, now as a college, and I said, ‘You remember that aftercare plan, kidda? Over eight years later, still working'.
"Going back, I managed to complete my five weeks.
"I’ve completed 12 four-week residential detox centres and seven rehabs over a 21 year period. So I’ve had a load of help, but it wasn’t until I was ready that I got real with myself.
"I got a job in the industry after 12 weeks clean. It was a bit of a record at the time. My sponsor said, ‘I don’t believe it. You mean to tell me you were being fed in these places three months ago and now you wanna be a teacher? I’m totally against it.’
"I said, ‘Well I’ve listened to everything you’ve said for the last 12 weeks, but I’m going to ignore you, and I’ll tell you why.
"I’ve been on sickness benefit for 19 years, and now I’ve come off the drugs I’ll tell you what, I’m not sick.
"I really believed I was bipolar. I really believed I was psychotic, that my body was full of so many different illnesses and ailments and guess what, the drugs were fueling that mindset.
"Now the drugs were gone. My life is getting better. I wasn’t sick anymore, and I have been working ever since.
"The proudest day of my life was one day, the police and crime commissioner's office called.
They said, ‘You have been nominated by the deputy chief for an award we’re pleased to tell you you have already won it.’
"The most beautiful moment was calling my mother, who was the greatest victim in my addiction. When I told her she just burst out crying.
"Amongst all that what keeps me going is helping others and the people they help. It's a knock-on effect."
'I ended up moving millions of pounds' worth of drugs around the country'
Another North Wales man described how he ended up trafficking millions of pounds' worth of drugs up and down the country.
The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "I started smoking in the last years of primary school, because I hung around with lads older than me.
"I then went to secondary school. It was cider every Friday night. Then, maybe at 13, I got onto weed. That turned daily. By the time I left school, it was amphetamines, tablets. By 16 I was going clubbing.
"When I was clubbing it was amphetamines, tablets, drinking and that was Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
"I had always worked, but no matter how much my wage was, I always sold drugs, to fund my habit.
"I lost a friend and even though I had always used drugs, I can recognise now that is when my drug use got worse.
"I think my habit was at £2,000 per week at one point. Buying an ounce of coke, a quarter of weed, my ale and tobacco.
"I had bought a house, had a son and was running my own business at this point. It was quite manic really and things spiralled and I took a terrible turn.
"Long story short, I tried taking my own life, that was drinks and drugs-related, then I got nicked.
"While in prison I swore things were going to change. I remember getting out of prison and that night, everything I had sworn I wouldn’t do, I did. Things hadn’t changed.
"I got involved with a bunch of lads and basically I ended up trafficking drugs up and down the country, multi-million pounds' worth of drugs.
"I remember taking a million pounds' worth of drugs over to Liverpool, picking up 10 kilos of pure cocaine and then just taking it as far as Scotland and as south as London.
"My lad would think its quite normal for me to pick him up and drive somewhere, get him a McDonalds, and he’d kip the whole way back. Go to school the next day and then do it again.
"My drug use got worse, at this point we were selling smack. We were selling everything, my business had done out the window, I was too busy.
"None of the drugs was mine, none of the money was mine. I owed them for drugs.
"I was on the run from the police, hadn’t seen my boy in months. I was walking around with an Iceland bag full of clothes. I didn’t want to get lifted and go to prison with no clothes.
"I saw my son and he broke down crying, I remember having that moment there and then where I thought I won't touch drugs again. He sobbed and I just thought, What am I doing to this boy?
"The next morning, with my bag of clothes, I headed to the police station to hand myself in.
"While in prison, I bumped into a lad I had known and he said I could go into rehab.
"I’d had nowhere to live for years. I thought, Right, I’ve got three months in here, then I can go into rehab for six to nine months.
"It wasn’t about getting clean at first, it was somewhere to kip. When I got out, I did my own recovery. I do meetings, I keep myself safe, I got my qualifications.
"I’m five years clean now and now my life is good.
"My business is up and running, I have dogs, and I see my lad quite a bit. I'm happy."
