uknip247 
The National Crime Agency investigated Stephen Earle, 52, from Crosby, Merseyside, who travelled to Portugal in July 2020, and remained there to avoid capture after NCA officers apprehended his associates in March 2021.
He was arrested by the Polícia Judiciária Fugitive Team in Faro in January this year at the request of the NCA, and returned to the UK on 18 March.
Earle worked closely with his cousin Terence Earle, 50, who was jailed for 16-and-a-half years in April last year. The pair used the encrypted communications platform EncroChat to run the criminal enterprise, with the help of subordinates Stanley Feerick, 70, and Lee Baxter, 50.
Baxter and Feerick have also been sentenced for their part in the class A operation and Feerick in relation to the creation of an amphetamine lab in Scotland.
Terence and Stephen used the EncroChat handles ‘ThickBoar’ and ‘Octo-hand’ respectively, and discussed prices for buying and selling the drugs as well as the logistics of trafficking.
The pair shipped at least 10 kilos of heroin and seven kilos of cocaine, with the former moved from Merseyside to Motherwell and the latter in the opposite direction.
Stephen Earle pleaded guilty to four drugs supply charges at Liverpool Crown Court on 16 April and was sentenced to 11 years and four months imprisonment at the same court yesterday
