A drug trafficking ring using a 'graft phone' known as Scouse Joey was dismantled by undercover police posing as drug users.
Daniel Ryan, 28, from Liverpool, was involved in a conspiracy to flood Exeter, Plymouth, Dorset and Cornwall with heroin and cocaine. Undercover police mounted an operation to smash the county lines network, reports Devon Live.
The force found Ryan later formed a second group, teaming up with co-defendants James Clinton and Michael Dickinson to supply to users in Plymouth and Newquay.
Ryan was jailed for 10 years after admitting four charges of conspiracy to supply class A drugs. Dickinson, 22, from Leeds, was put away for two years and nine months and Clinton, 25, also from Liverpool, jailed for two years and two months.
Exeter Crown Court was told that police started their investigations into a Liverpool-based crime group in 2017 by sending undercover officers out to pose as drugs users looking to buy heroin and cocaine in Exeter. They were able to identify people operating the line and a number of local addicts used as runners.
Financial investigations showed tens of thousands of pounds moving between bank accounts, and phone data analysis showed Ryan in contact with a number of other conspirators.
He was described as the organiser of the operation. Eight people, including six from Liverpool and two from the South West, have already been convicted for their part in the plot.
Clinton and Dickinson were not involved in the 2017-19 conspiracy. They were caught in July 2020 when police raided a property in Wilton Street, Plymouth. A suspected drug user was seen visiting the house and Ryan was arrested as he left. He had possession of an incriminating phone and his fingerprints were on a box found inside.
Dickinson and Clinton were inside the property. It turned out they had been using graft phones to send out hundreds of advertising messages to users in Plymouth and Newquay. The total value of drugs found inside the property was almost £17,000.
Recorder Mathew Turner said Ryan was the main organiser of both plots, though there were others higher up the chain back in Liverpool. He has previous drug supply convictions and must serve a lengthy sentence due to the large amount of drugs and cash going up and down between Liverpool and the South West.
Dickinson, of Acre Grove, in Leeds, also admitted three thefts relating to shoplifting in the city as well as two conspiracy charges. He was only 19 at the time of the offences and had a difficult childhood.
Clinton, of Bancroft Road in Woolton, Liverpool, admitted two conspiracy charges. He was an addict at the time but has recently made progress turning his life around. But Recorder Turner said the conspiracy was too serious to suspended the sentence.
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