'Two-Hour Tony' drugs gang jailed after cops discovered den where crack and heroin were packed up for sale

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Five members of a drugs gang dubbed 'Two-Hour Tony' have been jailed after police uncovered the den where they packed up heroin and crack ready for sale. Chester Crown Court heard how the organised crime group (OCG) was busted when police raided a flat on Runcorn on November 23 last year, the Echo reports.

Inside officers discovered 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.

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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.

Siôn 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