A notorious drug dealer has detailed exactly how he turned his life around and told others living a life of crime that they can escape from a dark place.
Hermen Dange wanted a lavish lifestyle - and didn't care how he got it.
He was "young and stupid" and "wanted money fast, without having to work for it" - but he soon hit rock bottom as everyone he loved turned their back on him.
Now 28, he has explained to the Manchester Evening News how he saved himself after being shunned by friends and family.
Part of a gang called the Manchester Boys, also know as Manx, he a ran heroin and crack cocaine racket from Manchester to Southampton for four years.
But Hermen was arrested on the south coast and later sentenced to six years in prison.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin and money laundering.
Hermen served three years at Stangeways prison, exactly half his sentence, and was released in 2020 during the pandemic.
He told his recovery story and said: "I have made mistakes and followed the wrong crowd. I wasn't pressurised to do anything but it was more the rush to succeed.
"I wanted money fast, without having to work for it. That's what the majority of people do, they don't want to put the hours in.
"I was young and stupid, aged 17, and I ended up selling Class A drugs, nothing was happening to me, I wasn't getting arrested.
"I was getting away with it and got away with it for a good four-year run. I was transporting drugs from Manchester to Southampton.
"I had built a gang around me but I was young and stupid - I didn't realise there was an operation following me.
"I got arrested in Southampton, I was in trouble with the police prior to that for the stupidest things like fighting over drugs. I was in a dark place, not knowing I was in a dark place."
Hermen says going to prison was terrifying.
"Going in to prison is really scary," he said. "I was constantly paranoid. You think you are surrounded by bad people and you could get jumped at any time.
"It was one big thing that affected my mental health."
Hermen says he did not want to come out of his cell, he was so scared and gripped by paranoia.
He added: "Your friends aren't there anymore, they move on.
"My own mum wouldn't visit me because I had lied to her. She was disappointed. I never had a father to be strict with me, it was just my mum raising me.
"I lied to her when she asked me where the money was coming from.
"I ended up getting six-and-a-half years for my first sentence which is a lot - because they put me down for a leading role in the conspiracy, I had built my own little gang.
"I was new to that crime world in prison.
"Behind the doors I was crying. When I got my first visit from my mum after six months, I cried even more.
"People used to see me a this tough person but inside I was broken, I was hurt. I was depressed and I was crying day in and day out.
"There was a lot of people there who knew what prison life was like, but for me it was new.
"Prison was tough. Everybody there is scared. When I went to jail, that's when I woke up. Prison is a place where you can wake up - and have another chance."
Eventually Hermen moved to an HMP Thorn Cross open prison in Warrington and looked into what courses he could study in jail.
He enrolled on a mentoring course, and decided it was time for him to pay something back.
A probation officer suggested he used the skills he had applied to forming a drugs gang into helping launch a legitimate business.
Once out of jail, Hermen says he got his head down and his mum bought him his first van so that he could set-up a removal firm.
He bought more vans, employed staff and also set up a street food business.
Hermen also decided to become a mentor, showing kids how he had turned his life around.
He added: "It's something I never felt comfortable doing - speaking to children and a large audience - and admitting my truth.
"But I thought I have the skills, I need to share my story and stop others from going down that wrong path."
As well as having his own businesses in transport and food, Hermen is now a mentor at youth centres and schools, talking to the younger generation about "life after high school".
He has projects lined up working with youth and Manchester council.
Hermen added: "I have been out for two years now and I my aim is not to be rich - but to be successful and to help others as much as I can.
"I changed the life of one person, who may have damaged hundreds of peoples lives (by selling drugs), like I did in the past.
"The way I keep myself alive now is to talk to people. The feedback and response is amazing."
