A drug gang leader's driver has joined him behind bars for his role in a plot to flood the North East with heroin and cocaine.
David Lindsay was roped into helping Ryan O'Connor in order to pay off his son's significant drug debts. Newcastle Crown Court heard he drove to Bradford with O'Connor 36 times over a nine-month period after he and his son were threatened and assaulted.
Lindsay, 61, was found to have been involved after police examined mobile phone and camera data. We reported last year how the rest of the heroin and cocaine gang, who were raking in huge profits, was smashed after police infiltrated encrypted chats.
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The Gateshead -based dealers thought they were above the law while operating under the radar on EncroChat - using monikers including Peach Pear and Rookie Fox. But when police hacked the system, the evidence of what they were up to was laid bare.
O'Connor and trusted sidekicks Keith Robert Brown and Steven Cairns were jailed for more than 28 years while Cairns' partner, Tanya Brown, got a suspended sentence. Now Lindsay, of Ellison Villas, Gateshead, has been jailed for four-and-a-half years after admitting conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine.
His barrister, James Howard, told the court: "He did it to pay off a significant drug debt for one of his sons who owned a large amount of money. He was told he had to drive O'Connor round and his son's bill would be reduced every time he did that.
"His son was threatened and the defendant was assaulted on numerous occasions and received threats. He has been a valuable member of society, worked all his life in asbestos removal and then for a bus company.
"He has had a triple heart bypass. He is sorry for what he has done, not only because it's ruined his life and his wife's life." Mr Howard said Lindsay "deeply regrets" facilitating the importation of cocaine and heroin into his local community.
The encrypted messages revealed O'Connor told someone he owed £350,000 for drugs and was paying it back at £100,000 to £150,000 a month. He also said he was selling around three to four kilos of heroin a month but that was not meeting demand and he could shift more if he had it.
In April 2020, O'Connor arranged to buy a kilo of heroin for £17,500 from a contact in Liverpool using the name Rookie Fox. O'Connor's and Keith Robert Brown's phones were shown to have travelled to Liverpool on the day in question.
Rookie Fox later complained the handover had been "botched" and "amateur" and that the money was £2,000 short. O'Connor said someone else was meant to be handing over the rest of the money but had been "on the sniff" the previous evening.
In May, O'Connor agreed to buy two kilos of heroin from Rookie Fox and was in touch with a contact in Bradford called Brittle Jet, who he agreed to buy a kilo of cocaine from. He attended the deal in a BMW and later thanked Brittle Jet for making him welcome and said he wanted to expand his business. He later agreed to buy a kilo of heroin from him.
After busting EncroChat, police raided Brown's home and found £140,000 of cash plus crack, cocaine and heroin. He tried to flee in his underwear but was arrested. At Cairns' home three ounces of crack were found along with a cocaine press and debtors list.
In total, £150,000 of cash, 1.7 kilos of cocaine worth £70,000 wholesale and 1.8 kilos of heroin, worth up to £34,000 wholesale, was recovered. No drugs were found at O'Connor's home but when he was arrested he was trying to hide his burner phone in the laundry basket.
O'Connor, 31, of Mersey Place, Gateshead, who was reprimanded as a 12-year-old for possession with intent to supply cannabis, was jailed for 16 years. Robert Brown, 63, of Greenland Gardens, Gateshead, was locked up for five years and three months. Cairns, 40, of Newman Place, Gateshead, was locked up for seven years. Tanya Brown, 38, of Newman Place, Gateshead, was given two years suspended for two years with 300 hours unpaid work.
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