Final defendants in Darwen drugs gang jailed for more than 15 years

Ashley Morris, John Cropper, Anthony Richardson, from Bolton, Taylor Walker, Jake McCosh and Nicholas Mullins all appeared at Preston Crown Court for their part in the operation, which saw six members of the same organised crime group jailed for more than 35 years earlier this year.

Ashley Morris (Image: Lancs Police)

The gang, which included top dogs Sam Stone and Zac Deaffern, controlled the production, supply and importation of hundreds of kilos of amphetamine and cannabis from a warehouse in Darwen.

Ex-Royal Marine, Sam Stone, alongside his partner in crime, Zac Deaffern, was involved in the supply and production of more than 200kg of amphetamine and 400kg of cannabis, with the pair using accomplices John Rowe, Phillip Alderson, Dexter Ryan and Joshua Main to help import the cannabis into the UK from Italy and other areas of Europe.

The operation, which resulted in 23 people being charged in June 2021, was conducted from Hollins Grove Mill in Darwen, with the gang members being foiled after police cracked the encrochat network they were using, and border force officials intercepted around 100kg of cannabis bound for the UK from Italy.

John Cropper (Image: Lancs Police)

Other parcels of the class B drug were stopped in Coventry, East Midlands and Manchester Airport.

A consignment of 80kg of cannabis bound for Darwen was seized by border control in Dover in March 2021, 10kg was found in the mill in Darwen, while another package was intercepted at East Midlands Airport, with a total of 400kg of cannabis seized across the entire police operation.

Some of the cannabis, if sold at wholesale price would have been worth around £1.7 million.

Anthony Richardson (Image: Lancs Police)

Cutting agents were also found at the Darwen mill, including caffeine tablets and methanol which were used in the production of amphetamine.

CCTV which went back to the beginning of February 2021, showed a mass of drug dealing scaling from drugs being manufactured to drugs being bagged up into enormous quantities, as well as shipments of kilos of cannabis bush leaving the unit to be dispatched across the country.

Defendant Ashley Morris was captured on February 25 arriving with Deaffern. Both men and Stone put on protective clothing and masks and then then proceed to mix drugs with cutting agent for five hours.

Taylor Walker (Image: Lancs Police)

Forensic analysis of the unit identified Deon Houghton’s fingerprints being present on a large black tub that contained ten kilos of amphetamine. When Houghton was arrested police found a bin liner containing cannabis in his garage. Houghton pleaded guilty to cannabis supply charges.

Defendant Philip Alderson controlled logistics for the gang. On February 26 he is caught on CCTV loading a number of bags of white powder into a car, with the consignment being taken to Manchester.

On March 6, 2021, Stone places a number of large bags of white powder into a sports bag and heads towards Caddishead to meet the defendant John Cropper. Once Stone had completed that transaction he continued his journey to supply defendant Taylor Walker.

Walker was arrested at his home address with mobile phones, a baton and cash recovered.

When Cropper was arrested messages were recovered from his phone where he was discussing mass figures of money and weights of amphetamine that he had been supplying with others.

Nicholas Mullin (Image: Lancs Police)

Defendant Anthony Richardson was also captured on CCTV numerous times and could be seen viewing the safe, where the mass amount of drugs were stored.

Defendant Jake McCosh was an associate of Joshua Main who was connected to the cocaine supply faction of the gang.

Defendant Nicholas Mullin was heavily involved in the supply of amphetamine and cannabis and fled the country when he realised the gang was being dismantled. He was later arrested in Belgium and brought back to the UK.

Police still want to speak to Mark Redshaw, 38, who has links to Darwen, Liverpool, the Salford area of Manchester and Cheshire., as part of their ongoing enquiries.

Those sentenced on Tuesday are as follows:

• Ashley Morris, 31, of Waters Edge, Middleton, two years and six months for conspiring to supply amphetamine and cannabis.
• John Cropper, 45, of Roseway Avenue, Cadishead, two years and eight months for conspiring to supply amphetamine.
• Jake McCosh, 25, of Pitville Street, Darwen, 18 months suspended for two years for conspiring to supply cocaine.
• Anthony Richardson, 38, of Mackenzie Street, Bolton, three years and four months for conspiring to supply amphetamine.
• Nicholas Mullin, 33, of no fixed abode, four years and four months for conspiring to supply amphetamine and cannabis.
• Taylor Walker, 29, of Staining Road, Blackpool two years and six months for conspiring to supply cannabis.