A dad-of-four who ran up a drug debt was attacked when he tried to refuse to go to Blackpool and run a county lines operation.
Chris Mogan, 34, was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday after admitting his involvement in a drugs ring dubbed 'Scouse JJ', which flooded the seaside town with cocaine and heroin. The court heard Mogan had "come under pressure" to work for the gang to pay off a drug debt.
Judge Neil Flewitt, KC, sentencing, told the defendant: "The reason you got involved at all was because you had become used to taking cocaine and ran up a debt. This case, like many others, is an example of just how easy it is when you start taking drugs to be sucked into dealing drugs.
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"You had run up that debt and you were put under pressure and I accept that on one occasion when you tried to withdraw you were assaulted. But you must have had some awareness and understanding what was going on, because you were on the telephone taking calls from customers and directing whoever was selling those drugs on the ground.
“So over a two month period you would have understood how busy that line was and how many transactions were being dealt with. You were hoping to significantly reduce your debt of £1,000."
Kate Morley, prosecuting, told the court that police had twice disrupted the Scouse JJ line, in 2020 and April 2021, but in August last year they began investigating it again for the third time. Information was passed by Lancashire Police to their Merseyside colleagues after finding that a mobile phone based on Merseyside was being used to facilitate the sale of heroin of heroin and crack cocaine in Blackpool.
The phone was tracked down to Mogan’s home in Bedford Road, Walton, where he was present with his partner and two young children. He admitted it was his Nokia phone and told them it was on the bedroom floor upstairs along with Sim card packaging.
Messages found on the phone were indicative of Class A drug dealing transactions in the Blackpool area, said Miss Morley.
She told the court how during his police interviews, Mogan said he had been approached by his dealer to sell drugs to clear his debt. The court heard after refusing to go to Blackpool he was assaulted and agreed to be a telephone dealer remaining in Merseyside.
Mogan pleaded guilty to being concerned in offering to supply cocaine and heroin between October 15 and December 7 last year. Paul Becker, defending, said that references spoke highly of Mogan, who “remarkably” for a man in his position has no previous convictions.
He said the defendant had been “an easy target”. He has four children and became distressed at not being able to see them and began taking Class A drugs.
He had worked for Jaguar for 11 years and also worked for Aintree Plastics before he started taking drugs. Mr Becker said: "He is terrified of losing his liberty and not seeing his children."
Mogan wiped away tears, while his partner in the public gallery wept as he was jailed for 32 months.
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