Two drug gangs and leading suppliers who plagued Nottinghamshire’s streets with heroin and cocaine have been locked up for more than 150 years combined. More than a dozen drug dealers were directly involved in an illicit operation that saw the area flooded with more than 10 kilos of Class A drugs from different parts of the UK.
The so-called ‘Kinsella’ and ‘ Eastwood ’ organised crime groups were responsible for copious amounts of cocaine and heroin being supplied across Nottinghamshire over a seven-month period. Between November 2019 and April 2020, the Nottingham-based Kinsella group bought cocaine in bulk from high-level suppliers based in the north and south of England, which they then sold to local drug dealers.
This included the Eastwood group, who sold this cocaine to drug users across Eastwood and the Broxtowe area, while also selling large quantities of heroin they’d sourced from different corners of the country too. The Kinsella group was led by Michael Kinsella and Jeffery Bradwell, while brothers Daniel, Lee and Dominic Wright, as well as Adam Rhodes, led the Eastwood group.
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The two groups used an encrypted communications platform to coordinate their drug activity and communicate with other suppliers throughout this period. An extensive police investigation was launched to dismantle the network and bring those operating at different levels up and down this drug dealing supply chain to justice.
Following an investigation by the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU), drug couriers Nigel Sisson and Dale Wright became the first people to be arrested as part of the police operation on January 17 2020. Sisson and Wright, whose job was to collect and deliver drugs and cash for the Eastwood group, were stopped by police while driving back to Nottingham from Cardiff, with officers finding four kilos of heroin in their car.
Less than a month later, on February 26 2020, police intercepted another car driving from Liverpool to Nottingham and this time found £423,000 in cash onboard. The driver, Ashley Hook, delivered cocaine and collected cash payments for an upstream drug supplier, and was known to be carrying out this role for the Kinsella group from January 2020 until the day he was arrested.
Another major breakthrough was achieved on March 14 2020, after extensive enquiries by the regional investigation team led to the arrest of Kinsella group member Lewis Kelly and Atif Shariff, a courier working for a high-level supplier. Kelly met with Jeffery Bradwell, before having an exchange with Shariff, who handed over three kilos of cocaine and was then pulled over by police as he drove back to the south of England.
At the same time, officers raided Kelly’s home in West Bridgford, where they caught him in the act preparing to cut one of the cocaine blocks with a knife in his kitchen. A similar police sting on April 2 2020 then led to the arrests of Jamie Moore and Fred Carvalho, following a trade that saw Carvalho deliver two-and-a-half kilos of cocaine to Nottingham and take cash back to Manchester in return.
Carvalho was working as a courier for London-based high-level supplier David Bowen, who had agreed to supply cocaine to the Kinsella group. Carvalho’s car was intercepted with a kilo of cocaine and £87,000 in cash inside however, while Moore, who was storing drugs inside his East Bridgford home for the Kinsella group, also had his house raided later that day.
This increase in arrests and drug seizures directly prompted Michael Kinsella and Jeffery Bradwell, from the Kinsella group, to suspend the group’s drug dealing activity in April 2020, after deciding it had become too risky. After Dominic Wright and Adam Rhodes, from the Eastwood group, were both arrested by the police for unrelated offences, Wayne Shipman – another courier for the group – was then caught with a kilo of heroin in his car, while driving back to Nottingham from Liverpool on May 28 2020.
This then prompted the complete collapse of the entire criminal operation, with police charging a total of 18 people in connection with the illicit drug activities. All pleaded guilty to being involved in the conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, apart from Dominic Wright, Michael Sirrell – who acted as the middleman between high-level suppliers and the Eastwood group – Atif Shariff, Ashley Hook and Nigel Sisson.
Following a lengthy trial at Nottingham Crown Court, on March 31 2022, the five were all found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, while Hook was also found guilty of conspiracy to transfer criminal property.
All 18 conspirators appeared before Nottingham Crown Court for sentencing on Thursday (30 March 2023) where they were jailed for a combined 166 years and one month.
- Michael Kinsella, 36, of Mundella Road, The Meadows, was jailed for 12 years and eight months
- Jeffery Bradwell, 35, of Wilfrid Grove, West Bridgford, was sentenced to 11 years and four months
- Daniel Wright, 36, of Princes Street, Eastwood, received 11 years and four months
- Lee Wright, 39, of Moon Crescent, Eastwood, was sentenced to 11 years and four months
- Adam Rhodes, 34, of Cultivation Road, Eastwood, was jailed for 10 years
- David Bowen, 51, of Merton, London, was sentenced to 10 years and eight months
- Fred Carvalho, 41, of London, was jailed for five years and eight months
- Michael Sirrell, 37, of Chilton Drive, Watnall, received a 15 year prison sentence
- Atif Shariff, 35, of Clapham, London, was sentenced to eight years and three months
- Ashley Hook, 40, of Braintree, Essex, was jailed for 13 years
- Nigel Sisson, 35, of Meadow Court, Kilburn, Belper, Derbyshire, received a seven year sentence
- Dominic Wright, 34, of Scargill Walk, Eastwood, was jailed for 12 years
- Lewis Kelly, 30, of Willow Road, West Bridgford, was sentenced to eight years and eight months
- Jamie Moore, 32, of Holloway Close, East Bridgford, received a seven year sentence
- Keilan Harrison, 22, of Hilltop Rise, Newthorpe, was sentenced to five years and eight months
- Wayne Shipman, 40, of Lovatt Drive, Langley Mill, was jailed for six years
- Dale Wright, 42, Lynncroft, Eastwood, was sentenced to seven years and two months
- John Wells, 47, of Normandale Road, Liverpool, received a sentence of three years and four months
Detective Inspector Mark Adas said: “These two organised crime groups worked together to become a major distribution arm of a drug dealing enterprise with reach across the country, sending tens of thousands of pounds-worth of harmful substances into communities across Nottinghamshire and beyond. They were dealing in substantial quantities of potent class A drugs and large sums of cash at any one time – a scale of criminality that often brings with it violence and misery for the communities in which they operate.
“By using an encrypted communications platform to coordinate their illicit activity, they thought they were going undetected, but when the EncroChat platform was taken down by law enforcement, the full scale of their offending was laid bare. This is only the first part of our action against these gangs.
"Next up, is seeking prosecution under the Proceeds of Crime Act, to ensure they do not benefit by a single penny from their crimes.”
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