The leader of a notorious crime family said "it's my birthday, this is a joke" when police raided his home.
Paul Whitney was previously jailed as the ringleader of the Whitney gang, a family drugs ring which flooded the city's streets with heroin and crack cocaine. And he is now facing yet another lengthy spell behind bars for trafficking huge quantities of illicit substances under the pseudonym 'Bullet Hawk'.
Liverpool Crown Court heard this afternoon, Wednesday, that this was the handle the 44-year-old used on encrypted communications platform EncroChat. Jamie Baxter, prosecuting, described how Whitney had a "network of couriers and drivers" at his disposal to collect drugs and cash on his behalf.
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After the authorities gained access to the underground messaging service, officers executed a search warrant at his house on Clocktower Drive in Walton on March 30 last year - his 43rd birthday. On this occasion, Whitney answered the door and replied: "It's my birthday, this is a joke."
Merseyside Police seized £600 in cash, a quantity of cannabis and several expensive motorbikes during the raid. A previous visit in August 2020 had unearthed monies totalling £15,000 in a locked cupboard, as well as a number of high value goods.
The court heard that Whitney had been involved in the supply of at least 4kg of heroin, 1kg of cocaine, 30kg of cannabis and 2kg of ketamine. It had previously been suspected that he may have been concerned in the supply of up to 83kg of class A drugs alone.
The handles of 38 other service users had been stored in his Encro phone, and he was found to have been in contact with around half of these. Whitney - who appeared via video link to HMP Liverpool - has 12 previous convictions for 34 offences, including receiving five years for supplying class A drugs in 2001.
In 2011, he was locked up for nine years and four months for conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine. The then 32-year-old defendant - who was living in Fazakerley - was described as being the boss of the Whitney family, which peddled drugs next to school playgrounds and lived a life of luxury off the back of it.
Relatives and associates had spent years at the top of a massive Anfield-based criminal network, with a stranglehold across much of Liverpool. They made selling heroin and crack cocaine a 24-hour business, running a cash and carry-style operation - with 13 members of the gang ultimately handed 82 years in total.
Paul Whitney was due to be sentenced today after admitting conspiracy to supply heroin, cocaine, ketamine and cannabis and money laundering in relation to his latest crimes. But Ian Whitehurst, defending, queried the quantities of drugs his client was alleged to have been involved in supplying - as well as the level of his role within the operation.
And Judge Robert Trevor-Jones adjourned the hearing until December 9. Whitney was remanded into custody until that date.
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