Undercover police snare ‘Two-hour Tony’ drug gang
If you have a story call our newsdesk on 0151 422 3560, email us at runcornwidnesnews@trinitymirror. com or write to us at: Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News, PO Box 48, St Paul’s Square, Liverpool, L69 3EB
Send printed funeral reports to:
PO Box 48, Weekly News Obituaries, St Paul’s Square, Liverpool, L69 3EB
FIVE members of a drug gang dubbed “Two-Hour Tony” were caught after police uncovered a packing den in Runcorn.
Chester Crown Court heard how the organised crime group (OCG) was busted when police raided a flat on Waterbridge Mews in Castlefields on November 23 last year.
Inside the Two-Hour Tony crew’s “hub”, officers seized mixing agents plus 88.7 grams of crack and heroin, estimated to have a potential value of between £4,980 and £9,680.
Michael Crothers, 25, of Heathgate Avenue, Speke, and Michael Bethell, 30, of Elstead Road, Walton were arrested at the scene.
A table in the flat was “clearly” being used for drugs to be “adulterated and refilled in the packages” for onward distribution.
That same day police stopped a car driven by Alan Brewer, 41, of Colworth Road, Speke, alongside Liam Malvern, 21, of Townsend Lane, Tuebrook, that officers had seen arriving at the block.
Malvern had 26 £10 wraps of crack cocaine and one £10 wrap of heroin plus £809 in cash.
A fifth member of the group, Benjamin Humphries, 21, of Alderwood Avenue, Speke, was arrested separately.
Sion ap Mihangel, prosecuting, said a police drug expert estimated the illegal enterprise sold between half a kilo and a kilo of crack and heroin over the 50 days of the conspiracy, with a potential value of between £50,000 and £100,000 after mixing with adulterants, and selling between 100 and 200 wraps a day.
Brewer acted as driver and would drop off Malvern and Humphries who sold drugs to users in their homes, before they would return to Waterbridge Mews to restock.
Two “graft phones” used by the group sent a staggering 7,613 flare messages to potential buyers in Warrington during the course of the conspiracy from October 4 to November 23, which the court heard was an average of 152 a day, albeit not all resulting in a sale.
Mr ap Mihangel said Crothers played a “leading role” and controlled the graft numbers and would travel to and from the Runcorn flat with the phone and drugs before they were packed and sold on by dealers “under his direction”.
Bethell also played a “leading role” and was living in the flat at Waterbridge Mews and would “assist in cooking the cocaine into crack and adulterating and bagging heroin” as well as supplying dealers and maintaining with the other OCG members.
Brewer was the driver and made “daily” trips, while Humphries was a “runner” and would travel as a passenger and supply drugs to users in their homes.
Mr ap Mihangel said Malvern appeared to take over that role part-way through October.
All five pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to supply a Class A drug, namely heroin and crack cocaine.
Bethell also faced sentence for one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) for punching a punter outside The Cornerhouse pub in Widnes in an unconnected incident in the early hours of August 7.
Chester Crown Court heard Bethell punched Sam Corker who had returned to look for his jacket and while looking for a friend “noticed a male with his right arm back and fist clenched”.
After suffering the blow, he recalled being “picked up” by another man, “put in a car and driven home by that male”.
Mr Corker was “coughing and spitting out blood”, had “blood all over his face” and thought his tooth had been knocked out.
The next day he sought medical treatment having suffered a “split lip, cracked tooth and a bruised nose”. Bethell was identified from CCTV and pleaded guilty to ABH.
Mr ap Mihangel went through the defendants’ previous convic