East Lancashire drugs baron jailed for 25 years

John Clark even carried on with his heroin, cocaine and amphetamines empire when the National Crime Agency charged him with money laundering, Bolton Crown Court was told.

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Clark sat at the top of a wide-ranging web with trusted lieutenants, a north-west distribution manager and couriers, including Darwen man Andrew Hodson, while living at the remote £1.2million Farm Hill Farm, in Edgeside Lane, Waterfoot.

And when the net started to draw in on the 36-year-old, he fled to a villa in Tenerife and later Morocco to avoid prosecution, the court heard.

Clark later complained about the squalid conditions of his Moroccan prison cell, where he was held for 10 months, awaiting extradition.

But passing sentence after hearing how investigators spent up to 500 man hours to bring Clark back to the UK, Judge Timothy Clayson said: “That is entirely your own fault.”

Drug seizures of heroin, cocaine and amphetamines, between March 2012 and January 2013, saw consignments with street values of £16million seized from various homes and even a lorry on the M6.

And a ledger recovered from Clark’s home showed that at least £1.36million passed through his hands alone over the same 10-month period.

Judge Clayson said: “You were the head of this organisation and responsible for its overall success, which enabled you to enjoy a very high level of luxury, to live in beautiful houses, drive very expensive motor cars and have several rental properties in your name.”

Clark fled from the authorities in a Bentley Continental and also, at one time or other, had an Audi R8 Spyder, an Audi RS3 and a number of Range Rovers in his garage.

Operation Bent, by the National Crime Agency, linked Clark with a £19million money laundering scam in October 2011.

He was filmed handing over £113,860 of ‘dirty money’ to an accomplice at Knutsford Services on the M6.

Eight West Midlands men were later jailed for 43-and-a-half years at Birmingham Crown Court over similar activities.

The plot involved drugs money being laundered through the accounts of legitimate customers, expecting genuine payments from overseas.

Clark was due to stand trial at Birmingham over the allegations in April 2013 but skipped bail.

An international arrest warrant was arranged and later executed after the drugs lord was traced to Morocco.

Detectives from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were also probing Clark’s role as the head of a Bury drugs gang which had importation links from London to Lincolnshire.

Eight other men involved in Clark’s Bury-based operation were jailed for just over 88 years last October.

His henchmen included Andrew Hodson, of Marsh House Lane, Darwen, who admitted drugs supply offences and was jailed for 13 years and six months.

Cocaine with a street value of around £7million was brought into the UK in an HGV by Belgian Phillippe De-Gest and transferred to a van driven by Hodson.

Later Hodson’s van was pulled over on the M6 and 25 kilos of the drug, of a relatively high purity, were seized. De-Gest was jailed for nine years.

Speaking after the case, Det Insp Lee Griffin, of GMP's serious organised crime group, said: “The scale of their operation makes for truly alarming reading - £11million worth of deals in just nine months, a number of properties across Europe and the types of cars associated with international playboys.”

Jim Cook, the NCA’s lead investigator, said steps had been taken to prevent the sale of nine of Clark’s properties, including Farm Hill Farm.