HEROIN DRUG GANG’S SECRET FACTORY
Secret tunnel led to base where £6m of heroin was mixed
A DRUGS gang which flooded the streets of Wales with super-strength heroin was operating from a secret factory only accessible by crawling through a tunnel.
Newly released images reveal how the gang of 20 criminals, which included three Newport-based drug dealers, formed a nationwide criminal network operating from a Merseyside hub.
More than £6m worth of heroin was mixed in a tiny flat, where police recovered packets of the drug and wads of cash.
The gang was brought to justice after police uncovered an industrialscale operation in the factory, which could only be reached by squeezing through a hole hidden by a washing machine.
Lee Halpin, 30, and Andrew Worrall, 30, were caught red-handed mixing 2.5kg of heroin, valued at £250,000, in a flat in Wavertree on January 15, 2015.
The pair, along with Carl Smyth, 39, admitted dealing Class A drugs and were each jailed for eight years at Liv- erpool Crown Court in May 2015.
But it was only part of a wider, crosscountry trafficking plot, which fed five gangs in England, Scotland and Wales with an estimated 60kg of drugs.
Detectives revealed criminals continued to direct the conspiracy even after they were locked up, using mobile phones sneaked into their prison cells.
Judge Denis Watson QC sentenced 10 dealers from Merseyside, four from South Wales, three from Devon and Cornwall and three from Scotland.
He said: “These offences result in degradation and human misery for those who take the drugs, their families and the wider community, impacted not least because of the increase in crime committed to pay for them.
“It’s a depressing truth that so much crime, and the wretched impact of that crime, flows from the evil of drug supply.”
“The Lidderdale Three” Halpin, Worrall and Carl Smyth – named after their flat in Lidderdale Road – used a hydraulic press and cut and repackaged “off the boat” heroin.
I It was thenh d deliveredli db by theirh i “trust“ed couriers”, including Halpin’s “righthand man” Thomas Burns, 33; Graeme Testrow, 28; Paul Fleming, 51; Paul Roberts, 51, and Anthony Smith, 36.
After they were arrested, Edward Smyth “came to the fore in order to fill his brother’s shoes”, while Stephen Phillips, 47, then sourced their “import-grade” heroin.
Nicholas Goddard, 36, working with James Hawes, 39, headed a gang in Newport, which received kilos of the drug on a weekly basis.
Another group in Newport collecting weekly deliveries from Liverpool consisted of Shafiq Ahmed, 26, and Jamal Swaby, 22.
The two dealers filmed themselves flaunting the profits of their heroin traded as theyh waved d wadsd off cashh whilehil singing along to rap songs about making money from drugs.
Mervin Hyde was the man in charge in the West Country, assisted by his girlfriend Beth Flower and courier Jason Fletcher.
Candice Gorman, 32, led an outfit in Irvine, Scotland, relying on Donald Campbell, 47, while father and son duo John Williamson, 52, and William, 32, operated out of Perth, Scotland.
Burns, Flower, Gorman and John Williamson were found guilty after trials, while all the other dealers admitted the heroin conspiracy.
Edward Smyth also admitted a separate cocaine plot – linked to city drug lord Steven Kelly – after he was caught with 250kg of high purity cocaine.