Spice drug gangsters fail in jail appeal bid
TWO gangsters who were jailed for plotting to flood Greater Manchester with Spice after police made their biggest-ever seizure of the ‘Zombie’ drug have been back to court to try to get their sentences reduced.
Milad Finn, 30, and Keith Robinson, 54, were linked to a home laboratory used to mass-produce Spice found at a property in Oldham.
Over £300,000 of the synthetic cannabinoid - which can leave users in ‘zombie-like’ catatonic states, trigger psychotic reactions, and has profoundly affected troubled communities like the homeless and prison inmates, were found inside Robinson’s flat on Manchester Road.
Plotters behind the 20kg seizure were also involved in the production and sale of crystal meth – the highly addictive amphetamine made famous by cult TV show Breaking Bad – as well as cocaine and heroin.
Robinson, 54, was also sentenced to six years in January. Ringleader Finn, of Haddon Road, Stockport – who had previously been acquitted of the murder of Junaid Khan, 21, who was machine-gunned to death in Chadderton, Oldham, in 2009 – was jailed for nine years over the seizure.
Finn was accused of having used a tracking device to stalk Junaid before murdering him with a Mac-10, but was cleared, alongside two others, after telling jurors the evidence in the case related to plots to sell heroin and rob drug dealers, and not the killing. He was later jailed for six years, however, after prosecutors used his defence to the murder to build a drugs case against him.
Soon after his early release in 2015, Finn embarked on a new drug dealing plot. Between July 2016 and March 2017 the gang led by Finn, who had a long history of ordering chemicals for adulterating drugs from China, sourced the chemicals and equipment needed to produce illegal drugs by establishing companies that could legitimately purchase restricted chemicals.
The dealers used fictional names, as well as email accounts and falsified documents, to disguise their illegal activities and avoid detection by the police.
Each had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make Spice and encouraging or assisting production of other drugs at Minshull Street Crown Court. Finn had also breached a serious crime prevention order, while Robinson had also admitted handling stolen car parts.
Lawyers for the two men argued at the Court of Appeal that their sentences were too tough, but lord chief justice, Lord Burnett, said the sentences were justified at a hearing on Tuesday.
Ruling on the appeals, Lord Burnett said: “Spice is well-known to be harmful, indeed very harmful”. Finn was an “enthusiastic participant” in the “sophisticated conspiracy”, providing “assistance at a high level to a wider drugs enterprise”, he said.
Robinson allowed his premises to be used and had arranged for collection and storing of chemicals.
The appeals were dismissed and the sentences upheld.