Gang in £3bn drug chemicals trade gets 44 years

Ringleader Jamie Dale set up a massive industrial scale operation supplying dealers across the country with cutting agents to bulk out their illegal drug supplies.

Between September 2005 and July 2008 he imported and supplied almost 36 tons of chemicals such as lidocaine and benzocaine, legally used in medications but also regularly used in the drug trade to cut drugs such as heroin and cocaine.

He lived a lavish lifestyle on the profits buying an expensive engagement ring for his wife, holidays abroad and a £15,000 watch.

Jailing Dale for 18 years at Leeds Crown Court yesterday, Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said he hoped it would act as a deterrent to those considering obtaining chemicals for the drug trade.

Dale, 32 of Claymere Avenue, Barford, Rochdale; John Cawley, 31, of Edgebaston Crescent, Birmingham; and Barry Hartley, 63, of Arkwright Street, Burnley; were all found guilty by a jury on Tuesday of conspiring to supply heroin, cocaine and amphetamine. Cawley was jailed for 15 years and Hartley for 11 years.

Four of the jurors returned to hear the sentencing. Judge Marson described the case as unique because of its scale and geographical spread.

The gang had not supplied the drugs themselves but had “been found to be a party to an agreement to supply criminals, knowing and intending these chemicals would be used to cut controlled drugs to be supplied to others.”

The judge told the trio: “Dealing in Class A drugs in particular is a wicked trade. Those involved in it, particularly at top end of the chain make vast sums of money at the expense of the user who becomes addicted and whose life is adversely affected. It is done for no other reason than pure greed.”

“Day in and day out the court has to deal with addicts who rob, burgle and steal in order to feed their habits. Each of you played a significant part in enabling hardened and determined drug dealers, some of whom are at the top or close to the top of the chain, to dilute their drugs so they could maximise their profits at the expense of those addicts. Each of you became involved with no thought at all for those lives that would be damaged.”

Chemicals they supplied were found in drug seizures throughout England and Scotland. “I am satisfied none of these chemicals were ever supplied to legitimate sources.”

The organisation was headed by Dale who had access to large sums of cash and used false identities to order the chemicals and rent different storage facilities, with frequently changing mobile phones.

The judge said Cawley, in spite of intellectual difficulties, was street wise, manipulative and cunning, acting as a willing representative for Dale, while Hartley, a convicted drug dealer, had used his contacts in the drug trade.

He commended Serious Organised Crime Agency officers and others involved in the investigation known as Operation Junko

After the convictions Alun Milford, Head of Organised Crime Division at the CPS said it was the first time such charges had been applied to activities involving such large amounts of cutting agents which if mixed at a ratio of one to one with class A drugs would have increased the “volume and the street value up to a staggering estimated value of £3.5bn.”

Police will try to seize the proceeds of the trio’s crimes at future hearings.