County lines drug dealers raked in ‘£6,000 a week’
TWO Mancunian county lines drug dealers who flooded the streets of Scotland with heroin and cocaine have been jailed.
Llewellyn Campbell and Macauley Peacock, both 25, were part of a gang that brought class A drugs from Manchester to the ‘lucrative’ drugs market in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, taking advantage of vulnerable addicts by ‘cuckooing.’
Manchester Crown Court heard that such were the profits on offer, Campbell and Peacock once took a taxi from Scotland to Manchester, then back again in a journey costing them £450.
When Campbell realised it had become ‘too hot’ after the police were onto him, gang boss Campbell tried to sell his drugs line, promising any buyer they could make £6,000 a week from it.
Now Campbell, from Harpurhey, has been jailed for eight years, and his right-hand man Peacock for two years.
Henry Blackshaw, prosecuting, told how Campbell and Peacock would transport drugs from Manchester in trips to Kilmarnock.
Up to two or three kilos of drugs may have been trafficked to Scotland during the 18-month conspiracy, the prosecution estimated.
In a process known as ‘cuckooing,’ the gang took over the home of a vulnerable addict and used it to store and prepare drugs, ready to be sold on the streets. A homeless addict from Manchester, James Savage, 30, was installed at one such property in Kilmarnock, where another vulnerable addict lived. He would often stay there for up to 10 days, while Campbell and Peacock would book hotel rooms in Glasgow. Police made several seizures of drugs from 2015 to 2017.
In May 2016, Peacock was arrested and released on bail and before taking a taxi from Scotland to Manchester and back with Campbell, which cost them £450. Judge Richard Mansell QC said this ‘shines a light on the profitability’ of the operation.
Campbell and Peacock were arrested at the Ibis hotel in Glasgow city centre on February 23, 2017.
Peacock, of no fixed address, was remanded in custody and has remained in prison since.
He is currently serving a 14-year jail term for separate offences.
In March 2017, Savage and another addict were both asleep at a house in Kilmarnock when at about 11pm a female addict who they knew from previous occasions knocked on the door. They answered but quickly found out she had been used as a decoy to get them to open the door.
About eight men wearing balaclavas who spoke with ‘Liverpudlian accents’ stormed the property, some armed with scaffold poles, a ‘jungle machete’ and a sword.
“Where are the Mancs?” one attacker demanded as the two addicts suffered broken legs and deep cuts. The Scottish addict who lived with Savage later told police there was a ‘turf war between Mancs and Scousers.’
Then in March 2017, Campbell was stopped by police in an Audi A6 in Kilmarnock, also with Savage.
They went back to Manchester, but were again caught by police, this time in May 2017 at the Novotel hotel in Glasgow city centre.
Campbell ran off when police went to the hotel, his DNA was found on a sock discarded during the chase which contained about £5,000 worth of heroin and crack cocaine.
Campbell was again arrested in June 2017 at a hotel in Middleton.
Proceeds of crime investigators will look into the case to discover if any ill-gotten gains can be clawed back. Both Campbell and Peacock pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs. Campbell also admitted a bail act offence. Savage, of Pearl Mill Close, Oldham, was previously sentenced to 16 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, after admitting two counts of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs and a bail act offence.