Members of a drugs gang responsible for a £1.2million conspiracy to flood mid-Wales with "substantial quantities" of heroin and crack cocaine have been jailed for a total of 100 years.
The gang shipped the drugs from Liverpool to "operational bases" in Newtown and Llandrindod, from where it was supplied to users across Powys.
The operation was run by an organised crime gang heavily involved in firearms and violence on Merseyside which placed key members in Welsh towns to run it. The gang also trafficked children into Powys to work as dealers and runners.
Swansea Crown Court heard the influx of dealers and drugs into Powys had brought with it a surge in crime and anti-social behaviour, the effects of which are still being felt today.
The gang was dismantled thanks to a two-year investigation by Dyfed-Powys Police known as Operation Regent, and is the latest example of a phenomenon called "county lines" where criminal gangs from large English cities extend their reach into smaller cities and towns around the UK.
The conspiracy
Ian Wright, prosecuting, said police had identified 128 drugs run from Liverpool to Powys between August 2016 and August 2018 with gang members using a variety private cars, taxis, and trains to bring the heroin and crack into Wales, and take the cash profits back to Merseyside.
He said based on the amounts of drugs couriers had been caught with, it was estimated just short of 11kg - around 24lbs - of the Class A drugs were trafficked into mid-Wales during the conspiracy, drugs worth around £1,167,000.
Sending the defendants down, judge Geraint Walters described the gang as "serious criminals whose mission in life is to make money while spreading misery to others", and said "many people's lives have been ruined by this wicked trade".
Reporting restrictions which had been in place have now been lifted in the case meaning the full details of the conspiracy which flooded the town of mid-Wales with Class A drugs can be made public for the first time.
The county lines operation was run by an Liverpool organised crime group which sent a number of trusted members to Wales to oversee operations locally.
The group operated a "safe house" in the Speke area of the city, and from this property the drugs were dispatched to Wales. In charge of this safe house was a senior member of the notorious East Side Boys gang, Lee Price.
The 37-year-old is currently serving a 22-and-a-half year sentence imposed at Liverpool Crown Court for firearms conspiracy offences.
Overseeing the trafficking of the drugs from Speke to Wales was Liverpudlian Jack Ross - the 22-year-old acted as a main link between the gang, and Welsh-based members of the conspiracy.
The prosecutor said the gang used houses in Hillcrest Rise, Llandrindod Wells , and in Heol Pengwern, Newtown as "operational bases" for their business - deliveries of drugs would arrive at these properties from Liverpool, and then be supplied directly to users from the front doors, or sent off to other parts of Powys for onward supply to addicts.
The Llandrindod house was the home of Hampshire-born Anthony Andrew Byrne, and his partner 35-year-old Rebecca Jean Lloyd who assisted the gang with dealing the drugs, with local contacts, and with activities such as topping-up the organisation's vital mobile phones.
One of the bulk texts sent out to users by 34-year-old Byrne read "Out and about best of both... 3 for 25 on the white", white being a commonly-used term for cocaine.
Mr Wright said one of those local addicts supplied by the gang was Simon Davies - Mr Davies was found unresponsive on the sofa in his home in Park Terrace in Llandrindod in November, 2017.
A post mortem gave his cause of death as multiple drug toxicity, and the prosecutor said in the weeks before Mr Davies died he had received numerous text messages from both Lloyd and Byrne advertising the availability of their drugs.
The court heard that among the visitors to the Hillcrest Rise base were Burrows brothers, Jake and Callum.
Together these gangsters ran the East Side Boys gang in Speke, and with a network of associates were responsible for selling heroin and crack cocaine in Merseyside while protecting their turf with guns.
The gang's arsenal of weapons at one point included a St Etienne revolver, Tikka hunting rifle, Smith & Wesson revolver, Baikal shotgun, and Browning shotgun. In October this year they were jailed for 25-and-a-half years, and 20 years respectively for firearms and drug trafficking offences.
Meanwhile the gang's Newtown base was the home address of Anthony James Butterworth. As well as assisting the Liverpool dealers based in the town, he made a number of drug runs to Liverpool to collect crack and heroin.
Acting as vital links between the gang and the Welsh network were Liverpudlians Ryan Thomas Langshaw and Daniel Putterill who were "embedded" in the operational hubs, and who co-ordinated the delivery of drugs from Merseyside to Powys.
The pair were effectively in charge of the two Welsh bases, and facilitated the onward supply to users in mid-Wales.
Mr Wright said 21-year-old Langshaw was "an integral part of the supply chain" who used eight different mobile phones during the course of the conspiracy, while Putterill, aged 22, was in "direct contact" with the Merseyside organised crime group, and with the network of drugs couriers servicing the operation.
Langshaw's partner during his time in Wales was 24-year-old Hazee Bluebell Pardoe-Wedge - she made a number of trips to Speke in vehicles with drugs couriers, and was in contact with "key" members of the Liverpool crime gang.
The court heard that on one occasion she was stopped and searched by Merseyside Police after attending a rendezvous in the car park of Morrisons supermarket in Speke - no drugs were found on her, but the prosecution believe she had hidden the stash internally.
Pardoe-Wedge's bother, Merlin Ziggy Bonner, was also part of the conspiracy. Police identified a total of six drug re-supply trips Bonner made to Merseyside, during which he used four different vehicles to try to frustrate detection. He also on one occasion acted as a driver for gang boss Ross, driving him to Cheshire.
The court heard Ross had been in Wales having just trafficked two juveniles - who cannot be named because of their ages - from Macclesfield to Llandrindod to sell drugs for the gang.
One of these children has subsequently been convicted of manslaughter for a killing unrelated to the Liverpool to Powys county line operation.
Another member of the Liverpool gang embedded in Wales as part of the conspiracy was 28-year-old Karl O'Hara. Known on the ground as "Matty", O'Hara made trips between the safe house in Merseyside and Powys acting as a drugs courier.
The court heard he made reference in texts sent to friends back home to the amount of money he was earning in Wales.
Fellow gang member Michael John Williams was also sent to work in Powys. The 20-year-old was primarily based in the Llandrindod hub, and was also a trusted courier making repeated journeys to and from Merseyside with drugs and cash. He used the name "Travis" in his dealings with users and street dealers. Williams also helped to expand the drug dealing operation into Brecon.
Twenty-year old Jack Chew was also a member of the crime gang sent to Wales as part of the distribution chain - a teenager at the time, he was in regular contact with gang members back in Merseyside, and helped to co-ordinate the collection and onward supply of the drugs.
The gang also included Nathan Thomas Duringer. Though aged just 17 at the time, he was embedded first in Llandrindod Wells before being moved to peddle heroin and crack in Brecon.
Known as "Jim" he was responsible for sending bulk text messages to addicts, and was in regular contact with Williams, accompanying the older man on a trip to Blackpool in May 2018. The court heard he "varied his means of transport" to try to make detection more difficult, at various times using trains, taxis, and private cars.
The crime group also used a number of trusted couriers to traffic drugs to Wales.
Shrewsbury-born David Peter Robert Brown was one of the main couriers in the conspiracy, making at least 30 trips back and forth between Liverpool and Powys. The 35-year-old worked closely with Putterill and Langshaw, and used three different vehicles for the trips to try to throw police off the scent.
The court heard 45-year-old Nigel Barnett also acted as a courier, making 16 journeys to and from Liverpool, often driving operational boss Lansgshaw to Merseyside and back.
Clive Phillips, aged 45, from Builth Wells and 61-year-old David Cledwyn Jones, from Hay on Wye, were also trusted couriers for the gang.
Police identified 18 drugs runs made by Phillips during the operational period of the conspiracy, and he was in regular contact with Langshaw and Byrne, while Jones made a total of 16 drugs runs between Powys and Liverpool, being paid £150 per trip.
Johann Hughes, aged 45, and 29-year-old Danielle Edith Wye also helped to transport drugs in Powys by driving gang members to and from Liverpool, with Hughes making four trips in his Honda Civic car, and Wye making three round trips across the border.
The court heard details of "community impact" statements from Dyfed-Powys Police inspectors in charge of policing in the Llandrindod and Newtown areas.
In statements read by the prosecutor, the court heard both town had enjoyed relatively low crime rated until the arrival of the Liverpool gang.
Mr Wright said police received 46 calls about activity in and around Butterworth's house in Newtown in the space of 12 months - when police raided the property people living nearby were "clapping and cheering".
Butterworth was subsequently evicted by the housing association that owned the property, and since then there have been no calls to police about the address.
The court heard the influx of the drugs gang into Llandrindod had had a "considerable impact" on the town, with residents reporting concerns about drug-related activity, and items such as needles discarded on the streets.
Police received some 53 calls about the Hillrise Crest property in the space of two years reporting antisocial behaviour, suspicious activity, and robberies.
One elderly resident who lived nearby had been left too scared to sleep at night, and parents who lived on the state had stopped their children playing out in the streets.
All the defendants in the case had either pleaded guilty to, or been found guilty of at trial, conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine when they appeared in the dock in Swansea for sentencing over the course of four days.
The sentences
Members of the conspiracy were given sentences totalling more than 100 years.
- Ross - three-and-a-half years which will run consecutively with the eight-and-a-half years he is currently serving. Judge Walters called him a "determined, resourceful, and committed" member of the gang.
- Langshaw - six-and-a-half years which will run consecutively with the five-and-a-half years he is currently serving. The judge said he was a "trusted courier" who had transported "drugs one way, and huge amounts of cash the other".
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Byrne - 12 years and Lloyd - nine years and eight months. Judge Walters told the pair they had both been "actively engaged" in running the operation in Llandrindod Wells "at the behest of your masters in Liverpool".
- Williams - eight years. The judge said he controlled the Llandrindod safe house, and acted as a courier for the gang.
- Putterill - four years.
- O'Hara - three years and nine months.
- Butterworth - five years. Judge Walters told him he was "somewhat vulnerable" but he did not think he was coerced into working for the gang. He said the fact neighbours had clapped and cheered when police raided his Newton house showed the impact the gang's activities had had on the community.
- Pardoe-Wedge - four years.
- Brown - six years. Judge Walters described the defendant as "cunning", and told him he had "played a full and active part in what went on".
- Phillips - seven years and two months. The judge told Phillips: "You were one of the main couriers, and were in contact with members of the organised crime group."
- Duringer - three years and two months (The Shrewsbury matters were treated as an aggravating factor rather than attracting a consecutive sentence) The judge said: "Yours was a commercial motivation - you did it for the money. If you had been older, the sentence you would have received would be very much longer."
- Jones - eight years.
- Bonner - three years and four months.
- Chew - three years and seven months. Judge Walters told the defendant he had made a "very bad choice" when he became a member of the organised crime gang and "you were not signing up to the boy Scouts, and you knew it".
- Hughes - three years and seven months.
- Wye - three years and two months.
- Barnett - six years
(Price, who was in charge of the Merseyside gang's safe house in Speke, is currently serving a 22-and-a-half year sentence for gun and drugs offences)
One more member of the conspiracy remains to be sentenced, his case having been adjourned to January at the request of his barrister.
Speaking after the sentencing Dyfed-Powys Police superintendent Jon Cummins said: "This is a fantastic result for Dyfed-Powys Police, in particular our serious and organised crime team, which has worked tirelessly to dismantle the organised crime group that was operating in Llandrindod Wells and Newtown. But most importantly, this is good news for the communities affected by this activity happening in their residential areas.
"We knew there was a problem with organised crime groups from elsewhere in the UK travelling to our communities to supply Class A drugs in Powys. Our action to disrupt supply should clearly demonstrate to travelling criminals that this will not be tolerated in Powys.
"We may be a rural community but we are a community that works closely with our residents and partners to gather and respond to their concerns and information."
Nicola Rees, a senior Crown prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in Wales said the CPS had worked closely with law enforcement agencies.
She said: "Bringing these criminals to justice was a major step in disrupting the flow of drugs into mid-Wales.
"These drugs can destroy families and have a huge detrimental impact on the community."
