Cocaine kingpin is left almost penniless – despite raking in £170k-plus
A CHADDESDEN drug dealer who made tens of thousands of pounds selling high-purity cocaine bought from a Derby drugs lord must pay back his last remaining £2,000.
Derby Crown Court was told Owen Manahan made more than £170,000 peddling the class A drug he bought in 1kg batches from Chellaston’s Ivan Graham.
But police financial investigators have concluded the 37-year-old only has just over £2,000 to pay back.
As such, under a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, Judge Jonathan Bennett formally announced that Manahan’s benefit figure from his drug dealing was £172,610.12 and that his available assets were £2,336.11.
He has three months to pay it in full or risks having another 28 days put on the sentence he is already serving.
The Proceeds of Crime Act (or POCA) allows the police to apply for cash to be seized from criminals. It is typically used after drug dealers have been sentenced and can see criminals forced to sell properties, cars or jewellery that belongs to them to pay the cash back.
The money that is seized is split 50-50 between the police and the Government and is often used to fund community projects. If a convicted criminal comes into money later in life which he or she does not currently have, police can still apply to have that seized.
His sentencing hearing, in January 2020, was told Manahan bought almost pure cocaine in 1kg batches from Graham. He then directed his “trusted lieutenants” to cut the drugs down to maximise his financial gain.
But all the while the gang was unaware they were being monitored by undercover detectives.
And when they swooped on an address in James Close, off Uttoxeter Old Road, they discovered 1.3kg of drugs worth an estimated £120,000.
Manahan, of Buxton Road, was jailed for 11 years at that hearing, with Judge Bennett saying: “This case involves a gang in Derby supplying wholesale amounts of cocaine and other drugs. Purity is a significant factor and the cocaine that was seized was of a very high purity.
“Mr Manahan, you played a leading role both in buying, selling and organising this conspiracy and you made significant financial gains. You were clearly aware of the scale of this operation.”
In 2018, Derby drugs lord Ivan Graham, 36, was jailed for 24 years after an estimated £35m of drugs passed through a two-bedroomed property he operated from in Wakami Crescent, Chellaston. Guns, ammunition and cash was also discovered when officers raided it in May 2018.
Adrian Langdale QC, prosecuting, said that Manahan was buying cocaine directly from Graham and then continued dealing with Graham’s replacement, Ben Mousley, later jailed for 12 years, afterwards.
He said: “Manahan played very much the leading role in this, organising the buying and selling of high purity class A drugs from Graham and later Mousley.
“There was an expectation of substantial financial reward for these drugs which were coming up from London effectively straight off the ship.”
Manahan previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs and a second count of possession with intent to supply cannabis.
The hearing was told how that offence happened when an Audi he was driving was pulled over on the A50 near Derby and almost £1,000 of the class B drug was discovered hidden under the driver’s seat.