A court has heard how five men and two women were involved as a criminal kingpin orchestrated a county lines plot to flood the streets of Workington with drugs.
Shaun Doyle, 27, sat at the head of a Liverpool-based organised crime group which ran the conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine to users in and around the town during over seven months in 2019 and early 2020.
Doyle initially came to the attention of police in August 2019 as the passenger of a rental car. Crack cocaine potentially worth £12,000 was found inside his trousers.
As detectives set about dismantling the illegal enterprise, they learned Doyle was in control of a drug line phone from which text flares were sent to advertise the availability of heroin and crack cocaine to multiple users at a time.
At Carlisle Crown Court today, prosecutor Julian Goode said: “Drug users would then contact the number and be redirected to a particular location where a street dealer would hand them the drugs in exchange for money.”
Acting as those street dealers were three West Cumbria residents — then partners James Postlethwaite, 46, and Karen Pullin, 37, both of Senhouse Street, Maryport; along with 38-year-old Paula Jackson, of Co-Operative Terrace, Flimby.
Above them in the criminal chain of command was Doyle’s trusted right hand man Jacob Hughes-O’Brien, 27, of Altfinch Close, Liverpool, who was caught by police with £40,000 worth of illicit substances at a Harrington safe house in November, 2019; and courier Thomas Jameson, 29, of Towers Road, Liverpool.
All were brought to book by detectives who painstakingly amassed a wealth of mobile phone, CCTV camera and surveillance evidence to bring the crooks to book.
A seventh offender, 38-year-old Lee Kirkpatrick, latterly of Wollenscroft, Stainburn, provided the safe house for storage and drug distribution.
Based on the seizure from O’Brien at Kirkpatrick’s previous Harrington address, police sought to estimate the total quantity of drugs transported by road and rail between Liverpool and West Cumbria, and concluded it was 8kg, said Mr Goode. Even viewed conservatively, the amount trafficked during the plot was at least 5kg.
Doyle, of Reedale Road, Liverpool, along with Hughes-O’Brien and Jameson, admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine, while Pullen and Postlethwaite were convicted on both counts after a trial. Jackson admitted conspiracy to supply crack cocaine only, while Postlethwaite admitted permitting premises to be used in the supply of a class A drug.
The sentencing hearing, in front of Judge Richard Archer, continues.
