A gang member pulled over by police in the Mersey Tunnel was caught in possession of the phone he used to direct the supply of drugs.
A court heard Daniel Mendes from Carmarthen Crescent, Toxteth, operated a phone line that sent thousands of messages to drug users.
On June 8, this year, the 20-year-old was a passenger in a car stopped by police in the Mersey Tunnel, reports The Mail.
READ MORE: 'Scouse J' gang who flooded streets with £1m of cocaine and heroin
Mendes was found to be in possession of the ‘line’ phone – the phone which throughout the conspiracy had sent out drug supply text messages to south Cumbrian drug users using various different mobile numbers – and was arrested.
He appeared in Preston Crown Court along with two other gang members - Ryan Mitchell, 46, from Barrow-in-Furness and Michael Thorpe, 25, from Birmingham.
Fellow Merseyside gang member Austin Murphy, from Mackenzie Road in Moreton had already pleaded guilty to drugs supply offences and was jailed for three years in June.
The conspiracy ran between March 29 and June 8, 2021, and branded itself the ‘Mo Line’.
It first came to the attention of the police when they raided the home address of one of the gang members in Barrow-in-Furness and seized over 200 wraps of crack cocaine and heroin and £1,410 in cash, arresting Murphy and two other members.
On May 13, police raided the home address of Mitchell, seizing 338 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine and £1,740 in cash, and arrested Mitchell and Thorpe.
Mendes is reported to have continued to operate the 'Mo Line' following the arrests before he was arrested in Mersey Tunnel on June 8.
A spokesperson from Cumbria Police’s south area Community Serious and Organised Crime unit said: “Today’s sentences reflect the hard ‘behind the scenes’ work undertaken by both Cumbria and Merseyside Police to disrupt and pursue the serious and organised criminality flooding our communities with Class A drugs – a trade which leaves exploitation and misery in its wake.
Keep up to date with what's happening in your area by entering your postcode below
“We will continue to pursue those who seek to profit from the supply of Class A drugs into south Cumbria; those who control this kind of criminality from outside Cumbria will nonetheless attract our attention and are not safe from our reach.”
Mendes from Camarthen Crescent, Toxteth, was sentenced to four years and two months in prison for directing the drugs supply operation.
Mitchell from Ramsden Street in Barrow-in-Furness was sentenced to five years and seven months for acting as a 'runner' and providing his house as a base of operations.
Thorpe, 25, of Yardley Wood Road, Birmingham, was sentenced to three years in prison for acting as a ‘runner’ and stock keeper for the drugs.
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
