The large-scale conspiracy sought to bring wholesale amounts of Class A drugs – namely cocaine and heroin – via Liverpool and onto the streets of Southampton during a 3-month period between March and May 2021.
At a sentencing hearing at Southampton Crown Court on Thursday 27 April, the court heard how that contact between the gang members were made via messaging apps on a series of mobile devices – which were seized – with detailed analysis and surveillance evidence allowing investigating officers to draw together the whole conspiracy and identify all of those involved and the roles they each played.
During the operation, drugs totalling approximately £500,000 were recovered from a number of addresses in the Southampton area, along with a large quantity of benzocaine – a cutting agent for creating greater quantities of drugs. It was evident from a series of message exchanges between the gang that every five weeks, approximately 1.5kg of heroin and 1.2kg of cocaine, were being supplied to and by a number of the members in the Southampton area for street-level distribution.
In sentencing them, the Honourable Mr Justice Henry stated that the groups actions – especially their use of benzocaine if mixed with similar amounts of cocaine ‘could have resulted in supplying approximately 48kg of cocaine on the streets of Southampton in the future’. This would have given a street value of the drugs that could have been supplied of over £4.5 million.
Ringleader William Andrew Marsh, 36, of Rock Lane, Melling in Liverpool was found guilty via a jury of conspiring to supply Class A drugs.
He was jailed for 15 years for his part in the conspiracy and given a Serious Crime Prevention Order for five years following his release from prison.
Three other men were found guilty following a trial for the following offences:
Andrew Bruce Dingwall, 31, of St. Francis Avenue, Southampton was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. He was jailed for six years.
Jack Stanley, 29, of Mandela Way, Southampton was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. He was jailed for five years.
Rudie Boy Stanley, 19, of Mandela Way, Southampton, was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. He was sentenced to two years; suspended for two years.
At an earlier hearing at Southampton Crown Court Isaac Williams-McLean, 28, of Warlock Close, Southampton and Jimmy Stanley, 27, of Mandela Way, Southampton both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
They were both jailed for 10 years each.
Callum David Mark Gover, 23, of no fixed abode also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and was jailed for five years.
