FIVE men who ran a multi-million pound Bolton drugs ring were caught after police bugged their "headquarters" with a microphone.

Four of the gang's "directors" met daily at Debbie's Diner in the town centre to discuss the purchase, supply and distribution of heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine, a court was told.

John Barber, aged 35, of Breightmet, Alan Bentley, aged 34, of Astley Bridge, Lee Bonney, aged 34, of Great Lever, Carl Entwistle, aged 21, of Brownlow Fold, and 44-year-old Raymond Hargreaves, of Callands, Warrington, appeared before Liverpool Crown Court yesterday accused of conspiring to supply Class A drugs between August 3, 1998 and November 17, 1999.

The jury was told the man at the heart of the organisation, Billy Webb, aged 41, of Morrison Street, Great Lever, had died since his arrest.

Barber, Bentley and Bonney, were very close to him in importance and met him regularly in the diner, which was owned by Webb.

Entwistle was involved in the wholesale distribution further down the line while Hargreaves is alleged to have supplied the drugs and was the link between Bolton and Liverpool.

Prosecutor Charles Garside, QC, said: "These defendants and others organised and operated a large scale and persistent conspiracy to supply hard drugs, particularly heroin, cocaine and crack -- a pure form of cocaine -- in the Bolton area. They attempted to create a local monopoly, enforce their control by violence and engaged in every aspect of the supply of drugs.

"They imported large quantities of drugs into the area, packed them in a distinctive way, distributed them to wholesalers, from there to lower level criminals and eventually to those who actually sold individual packages to users.

"Large amounts of money were generated, probably millions of pounds, and a large number of people were involved. They used to meet and discuss the drug dealing at the diner. It was their headquarters."

The jury was told that police had also videoed the movements of the gang members and had obtained details of their phone conservations.

Mr Garside added: "The system was designed to minimise face to face contact between the retail distributors and those further up the chain."

He told the jury the drugs were bought in bulk and cut by adding other substances, including paracetamol, at a garage in Harwood, Bolton, where a tape machine, 700 milligrams of heroin with a street value of £70,000, plastic bags and face masks were seized by police.

Signature

He said that quarter ounce bags of heroin were wrapped in two lots of 10 bags and these five ounce parcels were wrapped in a bin liner. This method of packaging was the gang's signature.

The parcels were hidden in public, but discreet places to be collected by those who were to sell it on.

The jury was played extracts of the tape recordings made by the police and involving conversations between the gang members -- particularly Webb, Barber and Bonney.

They are allegedly heard talking about delivery and supply of drugs and the prosecution maintains words such as Charlie, Gianlucca, Rock and Gibraltar were used to describe heroin and cocaine.

Mr Garside said: "The fact there are tape recordings is very unusual because such things are kept very quiet. What was going on between Webb, Barber, Bentley and Bonney were board meetings.

"We have a chain of supply of heroin, cocaine and crack and each level has a different role from the directors down the chain to people supplying bags on the streets."

The trial in Liverpool is expected to last up to 16 weeks.

(Proceeding)