JAIL FOR GANG WHO USED CITY KFC AS £100K COKE DROP-OFF
‘Amount of drugs transporting substantial’
A STOKE-ON-TRENT branch of KFC was used to carry out a £100,000 cocaine drop before police brought a major crime gang to justice.
The one kilo block of the Class A drug was exchanged at the Meir drivethru restaurant.
But what the criminals didn’t realise was that their movements were being tracked though ANPR, CCTV and phone work.
Manchester Crown Court heard that later that day, police raided a home in Cheshire where the cocaine was found in the kitchen flat of one of the operation’s main players.
After Ryan Ridgeway and Anton Nash were locked up previously, three more gang members have now been jailed, although one of them has jumped bail and is now on the run.
Greater Manchester Police began their investigation into the organised crime group in January 2020 when they raided the rural home of Ridgeway in Disley, Cheshire.
Officers arrested Ridgeway and two accomplices, Paul Cooper and Charles Ebbrell.
Police established that Cooper and Ebbrell travelled to the Meir KFC in Ridgeway’s Audi A3 earlier on the day of the Disley raid.
At KFC, they met with Nash who supplied them with the 1kg block.
This deal ‘was facilitated’ on the phone by Liam Duggan, who acted as a middleman between Ridgeway, Ebbrell, Cooper and Nash.
Ridgeway was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine in June 2020. The 36-year-old claimed he knew nothing about the cocaine but the dad’s fingerprints were found on the carrier bag which contained it.
Analysis of phones found showed the cocaine had a wholesale value of up to £35,000 and was worth as much as £100,000 on the streets, his sentencing hearing was told.
The same month police raided the Disley flat, police also went to Nash’s home in Halesowen, and found a loaded gun and £378,180 in cash.
He was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs, money laundering and possession of a firearm.
A simultaneous raid took place in Gotham, Nottingham, and Duggan was arrested.
Both Nash and Duggan provided no comment interviews when questioned by detectives.
Nash pleaded guilty at Minshull Street Crown Court to all matters and was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment in March 2023.
Cooper, 43, of Awburn Road in Hyde, has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years. Duggan, 38, of the Rushes in Nottingham, was jailed for four years and nine months. All three were convicted of possession with intent to supply class A drugs.
Ebbrell, 43, of Hopkinson Avenue in Denton, wasn’t in court and was handed a prison sentence of six years and nine months in his absence. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
After the hearing, Detective
Sergeant Leanne Banks, of Stockport’s Challenger team, said: “The seriousness of these crimes should not be underestimated, the amount of drugs they were transporting and supplying are substantial.”