Nelson man jailed over £7.5m North West cocaine conspiracy

Christopher Paul, 35, was the last of 16 people to be jailed after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

During the period of surveillance by Greater Manchester Police's Serious Organised Crime Group, it's estimated that those jailed were responsible for the movement of £7.5 million worth of high-purity cocaine.

Christopher Paul (Image: Greater Manchester Police) Following a re-trial which concluded in August, three men were found guilty of drug offences and possession of criminal property.

In April, 12 defendants were sentenced following a 14-week trial held last year, where they were all found guilty of conspiracy to supply drugs and possession of criminal property.

In the summer of 2022, detectives launched a covert investigation into a drugs gang believed to be in control of a multi-million-pound drug conspiracy across the North West.

The investigation began when two men, Jonathan Smith and Louis Cleworth, featured in connection with an existing surveillance operation into another man, James Mulligan, who was the head of another organised crime group at the time.

(Image: Greater Manchester Police) The investigation, codenamed Operation Bowler, was into Mulligan and his co-conspirators, and detectives secured jail sentences for 11 men in 2023 totalling almost 70 years.

During Operation Bowler, Cleworth and Mulligan were in regular communication with one another, and Mulligan and another man, David Keenan were witnessed by surveillance meeting Smith.

In October 2021, when police arrested Mulligan as part of the original investigation, the following day, Smith stopped using his mobile phone and stopped activating ANPR cameras in Nelson and Blackpool.

Large amounts of cash were also seized by police (Image: Greater Manchester Police) To further remove him from the attention of police, the gang replaced him with Jacob Smith, who took over his courier role until March 2022.

Jonathan Smith then came back to work but, unbeknown to him the entire group were still under surveillance.

Four months later, detectives had gathered enough evidence to execute a strike and arrest the entire criminal network and bring them in for questioning.

The conspiracy involved in this investigation ran between September 1, 2021, until July 20, 2022, when police executed simultaneous strikes on their addresses.

During this period, the group was responsible for the movement of at least 75kg of cocaine.

Cleworth played a leading role in the gang and, working beneath him, several individuals played vital roles to ensure the operation ran smoothly, with customers based in Lancashire, Greater Manchester, and West Yorkshire.

(Image: Greater Manchester Police) Through months of surveillance, customers and co-conspirators across the region were identified, with clear evidence of multi-kilo transactions occurring.

ANPR, telephone analysis and surveillance revealed the gang made an excess of 150 journeys between Middleton and various delivery sites across the region during the conspiracy period, delivering class A drugs to paying customers.

On May 5, 2022, surveillance officers observed an exchange between Reece Storey and Mark Hague on Stakehill Lane, Middleton. Hague was observed back to West Yorkshire where he was stopped by police on Scholes Street in Bradford.

In the back of his car, police recovered two solid parcels wrapped in brown parcel tape and plastic, bearing a distinctive tiger emblem on the packaging.  The parcels were later analysed and confirmed to be high-purity cocaine.

Discarded wraps of drugs (Image: Greater Manchester Police) The following day, on Friday, May 6, officers attended Cleworth’s address on Hawkshead Drive where he was arrested. A search of his house revealed over £3,000 cash, a mobile phone, and keys for a property on Boarshaw Clough Way, which police believed was being used as a safe house.

Police forced entry to this property on Boarshaw Clough Way and found James Kilcourse asleep on the sofa.

From this house, police seized approximately six kilos of cannabis bush contained in vacuum-sealed bags, two blocks of cocaine wrapped in brown parcel tape with a distinctive tiger emblem on – identical to the packages seized from Hague the previous day, and drugs paraphernalia containing residue of cocaine.

Police also recovered brown plastic wrappings from blocks of cocaine discarded in the in the kitchen. These were almost identical to wrappings recovered from a different location earlier in the investigation.

(Image: Greater Manchester Police) Following the period of surveillance and after several crucial arrests, police executed thirteen simultaneous strikes at properties across Greater Manchester on Wednesday, July 27.

In total, police seized tens of thousands of pounds of cash, designer clothes, high value jewellery, and debtor lists from the defendants.

At Riley’s address in Middleton, police watched as he tried to run out the back of his house in his underwear to evade arrest.

He didn’t account for police to be waiting in his backyard, so when he saw them, he ran back into the house where he was detained by police.

Officers noticed a smell of burning plastic in his house and smoke coming from the toilet bowl. Police recovered two mobile phones from the toilet which had both been shattered and snapped in half in an attempt to destroy evidence. Riley also had several small cuts on his hands as a result of trying to break the phones.

The sentences were as follows:

November 2024

• Christopher Paul, 35, of Hill Place, Nelson - jailed for 16 years

August 2024 

• Waqar Ahmed, 38, of Fountain Street, Nelson - jailed for 15 years for conspiracy to supply class A and B drugs and possession of criminal property
• Anthony Nicholls, 32, of Alder Avenue, Bury - jailed for 17 years and six months for conspiracy to supply class A and B drugs
• Mark Hague, 56, of Scholes Street, Bradford - jailed for 11 years for conspiracy to supply class A drugs

Packaged drugs were seized (Image: Greater Manchester Police)

April 2024

• Liam Bottomley, 31, of Adstone Avenue, Blackpool - jailed for 10 years and eight months
• Bradley Hughes, 31, of Rosemary Avenue, Blackpool - jailed for 13 years
• Jonathan Smith, 41, of Swinstead Avenue, Manchester - jailed for 17 years. At trial, he was found to have a top role in the gang. He was also found guilty of possession of criminal property
• Louis Cleworth, 37, of Hawkshead Drive, Middleton - jailed for 14 years and eight months for his leading role in the gang. He was also found guilty of conspiracy to supply class B drugs
• Jacob Smith, 34, of Higher Wood Street, Middleton - jailed for 10 years and 10 months. He was also found guilty of possession of criminal property
• Kyle Salt, 32, of Allen Roberts Road, Newton Heath - jailed for 10 years and eight months
• Reece Storey, 34, of Newby Drive, Middleton - jailed for nine years and nine months
• James Kilcourse, 57, of Boarshaw Clough Way, Middleton - jailed for seven years and eight months. He was also found guilty of conspiracy to supply class B drugs
• Elliot Riley, 31, of Mossway, Middleton - jailed for eight years
• Marshall Ashley, 30, of Scholes Street, Bradford - jailed for 11 years and three months
• David Ditchfield, 36, of Paignton Avenue, Hattersley - jailed for 15 years and six months
• Jordan Wood, 34, of Argyle Street, Heywood - jailed for 14 years and eight months

Detective Sergeant Mark Rigby, from GMP Serious Organised Crime Group, said: “This has been an exhaustive investigation which has resulted in over 200 years of prison sentences.

"This is a true testament to years of hard work and dedication by officers across the serious crime division and colleagues at the Crown Prosecution Service who have given us endless hours of their time, insight, and expertise throughout this entire investigation.

“Drugs trafficking is a major source of revenue for organised crime groups, and it brings a culture of violence and addiction to our communities.

"Through conducting hundreds of painstaking hours of surveillance, we were able to build this case and bring each and every offender operating in this conspiracy to justice, despite their efforts to evade police.”