[M]EMBERS of a £300,000 Carlisle cocaine supply gang – including a pensioner, a grandad and an ex-England schoolboy boxing champ – have been sentenced.
The trio were among seven men handed jail terms – some suspended – for plotting to supply the class A drug during a period spanning seven months last year.
Police smashed the major conspiracy and rounded up the criminals after mounting a covert operation code-named “Goose”. Officers also seized a kilo of cocaine and bulking agents from an address at Carlisle’s Derwent Street. Mixed together, the city’s crown court heard, this could have produced a mammoth 5,000 one-gram street deals.
Had the cocaine been diluted to a 13 per cent average “low quality” purity, the court heard, this would given a 6kg total haul potentially worth up to £300,000.
Gang leader Scott Sutherland, 25, was aided by “trusted assistant” Matthew Payne – a 44-year-old grandfather – during a criminal enterprise run from the home of 70-year-old Alan Hudson Williams.
Sutherland, of Shawk Crescent, Thursby, was jailed for eight years today (FRI), while Payne, of Stanhope Road, and Williams were sent to prison for seven and five years, respectively.
Adam Ritson, 28, of Ruthella Street, Carlisle, played a lesser role and was jailed for four years.
Others played more limited parts. Hill, a 21-year-old ex-England schoolboy boxing champion, from Hawick Street, Carlisle; and Matthew Scott, 24, of Lingyclose Road, Dalston, each had 24-month prison terms suspended for two years.
Daniel Shield, a 26-year-old businessman from Yewdale Road, Carlisle, had an 18-month jail sentence suspended. Hill, Scott and Shield must also complete unpaid work.
All admitted conspiracy to supply the class A drug. Payne and Williams also admitted possession with intent to supply.
The court heard relatives of the gang members – all cocaine users and mostly working men and fathers – were “astonished” by their level of their criminal activity.
Recorder John Bromley-Davenport QC concluded the seven had been involved in “long-term, large scale drug-dealing”.
Operation Goose, which targeted drug supply in the Carlisle area, collected evidence over a period of months in order to put an end to a criminal enterprise. Drugs worth a street value of £231,700 were seized during this investigation.
Officers from the Constabulary’s Serious & Organised Crime Unit utilised a range of investigative measures to uncover the criminal enterprise that linked all seven men. During the enterprise it became apparent that Alan Williams’ home address on Derwent Street was used to store and mix Class A drugs. Also key to this investigation was a rural footpath near to Great Orton where drugs were hidden.
On 18th November 2017, officers executed a warrant William’s home address and recovered 1 kilo of cocaine and 4 kilos of adulterant. Williams was arrested at the property and Payne was subsequently arrested simultaneously at his home address located a short walk away. Within days officers carried out further warrants and arrests against Sutherland, Scott and Hill for their involvement.
As the evidence was developed officers identified further members of the gang namely Ritson and Shield. This lead to the team ,a few months later, executing warrants at their home addresses at which time they were arrested for their part in the enterprise.
Detective Inspector Patrick McDonnell, Serious & Organised Crime Unit, said: “Operation Goose was a complex and difficult investigation. The organised crime gang headed by Scott Sutherland had a good understanding of police tactics and went to significant lengths to avoid being prosecuted. It was only as a result of an in-depth and meticulous enquiry involving many hours of hard work by the officers on the Serious and Organised Crime Unit that we managed to overcome these challenges and gather the evidence and obtain convictions.
“The members of the gang ,and in particular its head Sutherland, were able to afford a lifestyle well beyond the legitimate means of most of the hard-working people of north Cumbria despite the fact most of them didn’t have any work. Unlike the rest of society that needs to work and save for such luxuries as holidays, Sutherland was able to go on numerous trips aboard and have a more then comfortable lifestyle.
“The convictions and seizure of assets of the gang will hopefully send a message that, despite the potential short-term financial benefits of involving yourself in drug dealing, ultimately it is not worth the risk. As beyond the time in prison the loss of assets such as homes and cash under the proceeds of crime act does not stop at sentencing but will continue for years to come.
“We will continue to prosecute all those involved in drug supply in our efforts to keep the local communities in Cumbria safe from drug-related crime.”
