LAVISH LIFE OF £32m DRUG LORD
COCAINE GANG LEADER ALSO ‘PERSON OF INTEREST’ IN PUB MURDER INQUIRY THUG BELIEVED TO HAVE MIXED WITH CRIME FIGURES ON THE COSTA DEL SOL
A DRUGS boss who started a multi-million pound racket after returning to Manchester from Spain was wanted by police in connection with the notorious Brass Handles shooting.
Marcus Callaghan led a gang who ran a cocaine, heroin, amphetamine and cannabis supply line from Greater Manchester to the North East of England. He has now been jailed for 24 years, and it can be revealed he was a ‘person of interest’ in the investigation triggered by two murders at a Salford pub.
Back in 2006, two young men Carlton Alveranga, 20, and Richard Austin, 19 - were sent to the Brass Handles, in Pendleton, to carry out a hit on local hardman David Totton.
However, the would-be assassins ended up being disarmed and shot dead with their own guns. Their killer has never been found, but GMP say the case remains open.
David Totton and his pal Aaron Travers were both shot in the fray but survived.
A GMP spokesman told the M.E.N.: “Marcus Callaghan was a person of interest in connection with two murders at the Brass Handles pub in March 2006.
“This investigation has never been closed, however, more evidence is required to pursue any further lines of enquiry at this time.”
Officers first revealed they were looking for Callaghan back in 2009.
At that time he was believed to be a Gooch Gang member who had been mixing with serious organised crime figures on the Costa Del Sol. He is now beginning a his sentence at the Category A prison Belmarsh, having been convicted for leading a lucrative drugs conspiracy.
From a ‘small gated residential complex’ at Canal View, Stalybridge, Callaghan ran an operation described as being on an ‘almost industrial scale.’ He and his fellow conspirators - in Greater Manchester and in Tameside - have now all been locked up, bar one, who faces sentence today.
Prosecutors say Callaghan embarked on the drugs conspiracy between June last year and February this year, when he and his co-defendants were caught.
Greater Manchester Police have now released images which show bundles of cash and packets of drugs, alongside surveillance footage of Callaghan taken in the investigation. Officers also found bullets and a MAC-11 machine pistol.
As well as funnelling wholesale qualities of drugs to dealers out of the region, Callaghan’s gang sold closer to home, with references to Rochdale and other areas of Manchester in documents found.
Police had received intelligence on the gang and spent weeks watching them. A breakthrough came in late December last year, when officers swooped and arrested the gang’s money launderer, Rui Zhu, at Knutsford Services on the M6.
He was carrying almost £400,000 and incriminating documents.
His arrest didn’t stop Callaghan from bringing in the New Year in style at a four-star Edinburgh city centre hotel.
Together with the head of the North East gang Thomas Jaffrey, Callaghan partied in the VIP lounge and spent £395 on a magnum of vodka and a bottle of rose champagne.
In February, Callaghan’s drugs courier Kaniel Henry was stopped for speeding on the A19 in North Yorkshire and found with a significant amount of class A drugs.
Days later, police searched Canal View. They found drugs with a street value of more than £32m, and £130,000 in cash.
The drugs included £30m of
cocaine, nearly £1.4m of heroin, almost £900,000 of amphetamine and nearly £130,000 of cannabis.
Empty wrappings of cocaine were also recovered. Police believe the gang were involved in transactions worth £100m in total.
The majority of the Manchester-based gang went to trial after denying offences they had been charged with.
After trial, Callaghan, 34, of Newcastle Street, Hulme, was found guilty of four counts of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs, and one count of money laundering. He was acquitted for possessing a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life. On Tuesday he was jailed for 24 years. Callaghan’s ‘right hand man’ Theo Henry, 30, of Benville Walk, Newton Heath, pleaded guilty in advance of the trial to four counts of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs, one count of money laundering and possessing a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life. He was jailed for 21 years. Kaniel Henry, 25, of Culmington Close, Hulme, admitted four counts of conspiracy to supply class A or class B drugs and money laundering.
Like Callaghan, he was found not guilty of possessing the gun and ammunition with intent to endanger life. He was jailed for 12 years.
Jerome Hamilton, 33, of Northdown Avenue, Hulme, who acted as drugs courier on four occasions, was found guilty of money laundering but acquitted of four counts of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs and possessing a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
He was jailed for four years. THOMAS JAFFREY, 34, was jailed for 13 years and four months. STEPHEN SEWELL, 38, a ‘trusted lieutenant’ in the North East, received 10 years and eight months.
Jaffrey and Sewell, from Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs. RUI ZHU, 39, of Graham Street, Birmingham, was found guilty of money laundering. He received six years in prison. RICHARD LLEWELLYN, 34, from Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to three counts of possession with intent to supply drugs, namely heroin, cocaine and amphetamine.
He allowed his former home to be used as a safe house for the North East operation. Cocaine worth about £4.4m was stored there, as well as smaller amounts of the other two drugs.
He was jailed for seven years. Another North East gang member, KRISTIAN MOLONEY, 33, also from Middlesbrough, was expected to be sentenced today.