[T]hree people who were working together to supply Class A drugs in Barrow have been sentenced.
The following defendants were sentenced today (June 21st 2017) after pleading guilty to Conspiracy to Supply Class A drugs on previous occasions:
- Marcel Keenan, 39, of Kings Road, Bootle, Merseyside was given 44 months in prison;
- Thomas Brown, 42, of Viola Street, Bootle, Merseyside was given 44 months in prison.
The following defendant pleaded guilty to allowing her premises to be used for the sale of Class A drugs. She pleaded guilty on the day on the day of trial.
- Jane Marie Sime, 39, of Pennine Gardens, Barrow was given 24 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, with an 8pm to 8am curfew.
Each member of the trio played a different role in the conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and diamorphine in Barrow, as part of a Merseyside Organised Crime Group nicknamed the ‘Joeys’.
On the 5th December 2016, police officers detained Keenan and Sime in a Barrow supermarket car park just as they were about to enter a nearby vehicle. Both were arrested and taken to the police station.
Keenan was searched in custody and officers located on him £200 cash and numerous individual deals of heroin and crack cocaine, with a street value of almost £1,500. Officers searched the car and found pieces of plastic that had been used in the preparation of street deals.
As a result of the arrests, police officers searched the home address of Sime and located black doggy bags identical to those used to wrap the Class A drugs found on Keenan.
Police also found cash deposit receipts for nearly £1,000, which officers believed came from Sime selling Class A drugs. CCTV investigations showed that this money had been paid into an account in Merseyside by Keenan.
On the 19th December last year, police attended the home address of Brown and arrested him for his role in the conspiracy. A search of his home address was conducted and officers recovered five mobile phones, numerous SIM cards, an EE PAYG top up card, some digital weighing scales, £540 cash and eight wraps of heroin.
A spokesperson for the Cumbria Police South Area Drugs Unit said: “Brown was a distributor of the Class A drugs, responsible for the hands-on supply to end users, and also for transporting the drugs from Merseyside to Cumbria. We could show that on his arrival into barrow, local drug users were alerted to the availability of heroin and crack cocaine.
“Sime allowed her property to be used by members of this criminal gang, in exchange for free drugs. She had the phone numbers of both Keenan and Brown and examination of her mobile phone strongly suggested that Brown stayed with her to facilitate the supply of drugs into Barrow. Keenan also used her home address while he dealt the drugs on the street.
“All three played different roles in the conspiracy, but all were significant in the supply of Class A drugs in Barrow. I therefore am glad that all three have today answered for the serious crimes that they committed.”
