A senior member of an organised crime group (OCG) that ran an amphetamine lab in Scotland, and trafficked heroin and cocaine, has been sentenced following a National Crime Agency investigation.

Colin Wright, 38, from Torre Pacheco in Murcia, and formerly of Motherwell, was arrested by the Spanish National Police in March this year at the request of the National Crime Agency, and extradited to the UK on 4 October. A number of high value items were seized from his Spanish address.

Wright had travelled abroad in August 2020, and remained in Spain to avoid capture after NCA officers apprehended fellow OCG members in March 2021.

He was the head of the OCG’s Scottish arm, and was actively involved in the supply of cocaine and heroin in both Scotland and England. He is the final member of the OCG to be sentenced, with six others now serving jail terms.

Wright worked alongside Terence Earle, 50, who was jailed for 16-and-a-half years in April 2023, and Terence’s cousin Stephen Earle, 52, who was jailed for 11 years and four months in August this year.

Wright used the EncroChat handle ‘Jack-Nicklaus’ to communicate with Terence. He also sourced drugs, assessed supply routes and found customers.

He created the amphetamine lab in Motherwell. In March 2020, as the nation entered its first Covid 19 lockdown, a criminal associate delivered boxes of alpha-phenylacetoacetamide (APAA), part of the amphetamine production process, to Wright.

Over the next few days the OCG began preparing the lab, but despite messages between them saying the ‘farm’ (or lab) was ready, they struggled to obtain the necessary solvents for the production process.

Terence and Wright also exchanged photos of the liquid being treated, to check what colour it should be.

Wright helped ship at least 20 kilos of cocaine and 10 kilos of heroin, with the former moved from Merseyside to Motherwell and the latter in the opposite direction. The lab was also capable of producing 1,000 kilos of amphetamine.

He pleaded guilty to five drugs charges at Liverpool Crown Court on 1 November and was sentenced to 13 years and four months imprisonment at the same court today (16 December).

The NCA’s investigation formed part of Operation Venetic, the UK NCA-led law enforcement response to the takedown of the EncroChat service in July 2020.

NCA Branch Commander Cat McHugh said:

« Wright’s case shows that criminals who seek refuge abroad are never immune from law enforcement’s reach as the NCA has the international scope to find them, bring them back to the UK and put them before the courts.

« His sentencing means that we have completely dismantled this organised crime group, who posed a grave danger to communities in Scotland and Merseyside, with the drugs they trafficked helping to fuel violence and exploitation in these areas. »

16 December 2024

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Three men have today been jailed for their roles in an organised crime group that smuggled several billion pounds worth of heroin, cocaine and cannabis into the UK.

The OCG included offenders from across the UK and criminals from the Netherlands who were brought to justice following a long-running National Crime Agency investigation.

From south east England to Scotland, the OCG supplied other crime groups drugs from its importations – which are believed to have contained more than 50 tonnes of drugs – the weight of around 30 family sized cars.

The group was led by Paul Green, 59, of Widnes, Cheshire, who was known as ‘the big fella’.

He was jailed for 32 years earlier this year and today Sohail Qureshi, 64, one of his key accomplices was sentenced to 25 years behind bars at Manchester Crown Court.

Qureshi, of Wood Crescent, White City, London, but originally from Glasgow, was convicted of plotting to import heroin, cocaine and cannabis. He was crucial to the OCG because he helped them join forces with a team of offenders from the Netherlands, which generated new smuggling routes to the UK.

Sohail Qureshi, Khaleed Vazeer and Ghazanfar Mahmood

Qureshi worked closely with Khaleed Vazeer, 58, of Timperley, and Ghazanfar Mahmood, 53, of Bolton, both Greater Manchester.

Mahmood, who was born in Pakistan but holds Danish nationality, was convicted of being involved in an OCG. The former taxi driver took his orders from Qureshi and travelled to Spain and the Netherlands to develop the operation, and he became a director of a front company in the Netherlands.

He was sentenced to three years and nine months.

Vazeer was convicted of the same charges as Qureshi.

He helped set up a front company in the UK and helped Dutch crime boss Barbara Rijnbout – jailed for 18 years earlier this year – open personal and business bank accounts in the UK by using forged documents.

Dutch wiretap evidence showed Vazeer supported and encouraged Rijnbout, 53, of Utrecht, to run the Dutch OCG side.

Vazeer was sentenced to 20 years.

The offences were committed between August 2015 and September 2018 during which the OCG smuggled at least 240 consignments of drugs.

The group set up front companies and rented warehouses in the Netherlands and UK to move drugs hidden in deliveries of strong-smelling foodstuff such as onions, garlic and ginger.

As well as the warehouses in Sheffield and Preston, the OCG also rented premises in Leeds, Warrington, Bolton, Wigan and Ormskirk.

In total, more than 246 years of jail time has been given to 12 members of the OCG. Two men who cannot be named for legal reasons await sentencing for their roles along with Ashley Jones, 34, of St Helens, Merseyside. He admitted conspiring to import Class A drugs and will be sentenced at a date to be confirmed.

Two offenders were given suspended sentences and one died before he could be sentenced.

The OCG members were convicted over two trials: one lasting 23 months – a record in England and Wales – and the second lasting nine months.

Richard Harrison, regional head of investigations at the National Crime Agency, said:

“These criminals supplied unprecedented amounts of drugs right across the UK.

“And along with that, an incalculable amount of damage to society with the violence, addiction, exploitation and misery that are inseparable from supplying drugs.

“Offenders like these only care about the money to be made.

“They don’t care that they fuel horrendous problems such as children being sucked into dealing drugs through County Lines or innocent members of the public being hurt or even killed in the crossfire of turf wars.

“I commend my officers for the years of dedicated and tenacious work that went into bringing this OCG to justice.”

13 December 2024

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