Moment Crewe drugs gang boss is arrested in his dressing gown
This is the moment a man who managed a Crewe-based county lines drugs gang was arrested by police at his home. Harvey Etchells had raced up the stairs in his dressing gown in a bid to flush evidence down the toilet.
He was quickly followed by officers who arrested him outside the bathroom of his property in Wistaston. A mobile phone was later found in a manhole in the garden.
Cheshire Police have released footage of the arrest in which a handcuffed Etchells says "sweet" to one of the officers as he informs him he is being taken into custody for questioning. The 27-year-old, of Windermere Road, appeared at Chester Crown Court on January 17 after pleading guilty to being concerned in the supply of class A drugs (Heroin), possession with intent to supply class A drugs (other) and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place.
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He was sentenced for three years and seven months behind bars. During his hearing, the court heard that officers from Cheshire Constabulary's Serious and Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) had identified two mobile phone numbers used by Etchells functioning as county lines to facilitate the sale of crack cocaine and heroin in the Crewe area.
The numbers used by Etchells were known as the "H" line, who advertised the sale of illegal drugs via his phone. In this instance, officers' enquiries revealed that one of the two numbers had been offering drugs for sale to a long list of contacts on a daily basis. Further enquiries revealed that these messages were being sent within the vicinity of an address in Wistaston. Investigating officers suspected that Etchells was behind these messages and that he was the controller for the H line.
Further evidence cemented this suspicion, and officers executed a warrant at Etchells' home address on Windermere Road on Thursday 28 November 2024. When officers entered the property, Etchells fled upstairs into his bathroom. He was detained and a phone was found on his person which was swiftly seized, but officers had reason to believe Etchells had attempted to flush further evidence down the toilet.
Officers then accessed a manhole in the property's garden, and upon flushing the toilet in the bathroom a mobile phone exited the downpipe into manhole. Officers rang one of the numbers believed to be associated with drug supply and the phone that Etchells had attempted to dispose of rang.
Meanwhile, back inside the house, officers located a number of items believed to be used in connection to the sale of class A drugs across the property. Scraps of paper with names and phone numbers on were also recovered from an outside bin at the front of address, which upon inspection, revealed that 14 of the 25 numbers on the document were known to Cheshire Police systems as people linked to possession of Class A drugs.
A large zombie-style knife, approximately 17.5 inches in length, was also found in Etchells' bedroom. Later, when interviewed by officers, he claimed that he used it for gardening and that he was not aware they were illegal to possess.
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