A chemical company director from Merseyside has been jailed after a rural drug lab was busted 100 miles away.
Stephen Singleton, who was director of a St Helens-based chemical company, used EncroChat to help lead a drug operation that produced amphetamine in a shed in rural Yorkshire. North Yorkshire Police responded to concerns about suspicious activity at a house near Thirsk when they found two men in the middle of making amphetamine oil.
Officers also found noxious vapours coming from the address, laboratory equipment and £20,000 in cash.
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Philip Lister and his brother-in-law, Ryan Beer, were both arrested at the scene with a subsequent police investigation finding that Lister was using EncroChat. The investigation launched by the force's Organised Crime Unit and the Intelligence Bureau led officers to suspect both Singleton and Jordan Blackburn from West Yorkshire who were also using the encrypted messaging system.
It was found that Singelton, of York Road, Birkdale, and Blackburn were in charge of the operation, and Lister was the chef who produced the drugs with occasional help from Beer. The operation at the time of the arrest was capable of producing 523kg of street-purity amphetamine. Only small quantities of the drug were found to have been made in the shed but twelve barrels of a chemical called MAPA, used to make amphetamine, were found.
Had all twelve barrels been used, it would have been enough to create a street value of more than £5m worth of amphetamine. The property had been rented to Lister for £1,100 a month and the shed had been converted into a chemical lab.
Singleton, 36, of York Road, Birkdale, Sefton; Blackburn, 34, of York Road, Leeds; and Beer, 30, of Chandos Mews, Leeds, were all found guilty by a jury of conspiracy to produce amphetamine at Teesside Crown Court in December 2022.
They were jailed on January 13, 2023, but due to an outstanding court case involving Singleton in another area, the case could not be reported until now.
Singleton was jailed for nine years and two months, Blackburn was jailed for eight years and nine months, and Beer was jailed for two years and four months.
Lister, 41, of Wykebeck Avenue, Osmandthorpe, Leeds was charged with conspiracy to produce amphetamine and money laundering. He pleaded guilty to both charges and was sentenced to four years and four months in prison. he was also sentenced on 13 January.
Detective Constable Neil Borchardt said: "This was a significant criminal enterprise that was disrupted thanks to the suspicions of local people who were concerned about the constant activity at the property and the smell of chemicals emanating from the building.
"The gang used a criminally encrypted communication platform at a significant financial cost believing that they could use it to run their criminal activities safely, they were wrong. Along with local residents, and working with the National Crime Agency, North Yorkshire Police Organised Crime Unit was able to disrupt and bring this criminal gang to justice."
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