A man who produced more than £1m worth of spice and then went on the run in Spain has finally been punished.
Matthew Styles, 34, from Oldham, has been jailed for 11-and-a-half-years after he was finally caught by police.
Styles’ spice enterprise was first noticed by police while he was under surveillance in 2017.
He was seen at a shop where he bought marshmallow leaves which are used in the production of spice.
Later that year, he was spotted again but this time at a shipping container in Middleton.
Officers searched the container which was found to contain 1.5kg of cannabinoid powder, acetone and 70 kilos of marshmallow leaves.
Equipment used to make spice was also found.
Spice was made a class B drug the year before in December 2016 after it was found to be causing issues in cities and towns across the country.
It is a synthetic cannabinoid and the drug is known to “zombify” its users, and was originally designed to mimic the effects of “being stoned.”
Users have described the effects spice has on them, including creating an inability to move, breathing difficulties, heart palpitations, seizures and extreme anxieties.
After finding the paraphernalia and ingredients in the shipping container, police searched Styles’ home and found a delivery note for a package from China, which was used to import the cannabinoid to make spice.
His numerous phones also proved his involvement in selling spice across Manchester and importing the materials needed to produce it.
Over the course of the investigation, Greater Manchester Police found that Styles had bought enough marshmallow leaf to produce 647kgs of spice which would generate a street value of over £1m.
A court hearing was set for 2018 but Styles failed to turn up.
He had instead used a hire vehicle to flee the UK and travel into Spain through the Channel tunnel.
Styles was helped by Keith Pritchard, of Collyhurst, who hired and drove the van and arranged the tickets out of the country.
Pritchard was arrested on his return to the UK in December 2018 and jailed for 18 months last week but Styles was not found until almost two years later in August 2020.
He was jailed for 11-and-a-half-years at Manchester Crown Court on Friday for conspiracy to supply a class B drug, conspiracy to produce a class B drug, importation of spice and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
Detective Chief Inspector Patrick Goodrich of Greater Manchester Police’s City of Manchester Division, said: “From the sheer volume of spice we recovered, it’s clear that Styles was a prolific supplier with no concern for the vulnerable people he was putting at risk; exploiting their weaknesses just to increase the profits of his selfish, illicit, business.
“The supply of drugs is absolutely unacceptable and I hope this sentence encourages other people who have been affected by drugs in their area, to report this to us so we can take action.
“We do and will continue to act on the information that we receive from people about the supply and manufacture of drugs.
“It shows that no matter how big your production, we have the resources and processes to take you down.”
