Yahoo News He started football career at Blackpool, but turned to distributing cocaine and heroin when he needed money
A former professional footballer started his career at Blackpool FC turned to distributing cocaine and heroin when he needed the money.
Jamie Menagh has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for his involvement in a £250m conspiracy that involved smuggling class A drugs into the country hidden in a trailer. At a court hearing on Wednesday (November 20), it was revealed the 31-year-old midfielder assisted in distributing drugs to couriers who then spread the South American cocaine and heroin around the UK.
Menagh, who most recently resided in a luxurious waterside flat prior to his arrest and charge earlier this year, is a former professional footballer who represented Liverpool Schoolboys as a young player. He later signed his first professional contract with Blackpool, before playing for teams across the north west of the UK including Prescot Cables, Chester FC, Marine FC, Stockport County and Airbus UK.
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He most recently played for Anfield club Lower Breck FC. It's unclear when Menagh became entangled in the drug conspiracy - dismantled by a North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU) investigation named Operation Falcon - but Mold Crown Court heard this week that Menagh was recruited to aid the gang's distribution routes.
Menagh, of Waterloo Quay on Liverpool's waterfront, appeared with a number of other defendants in the dock at the Welsh courts after being charged in connection with the £250m plot that saw drugs smuggled into the UK in a secret compartment concealed in a trailer. The criminal network used the Eurotunnel to transport the South American drugs, from the European mainland and into the UK concealed in the trailer, the ECHO reports.
Between May 3 and September 21 last year, Guy Remington drove to mainland Europe, before returning to his Hereford home 24 hours later. Remington would then travel to Luke Hirst's farm in Wales, and remove the drugs from a concealment hidden behind the wooden panels of his trailer. The drugs were then sorted into boxes and bags for onward supply.
Hirst would meet his customers at a nearby service station or on Pinfold Lane, then take their cars to his property, where he would fill them with drugs before giving their vehicles back to them, all to conceal the location of his farm. But it was after Remington’s ninth and final drug run to Europe that the OCG came crashing down.
Police, who had been carrying out a covert operation, intervened on September 20 2023 as he was removing the drugs from his trailer at Hirst's farm, ending the multi-million pounds drugs empire. He was arrested at the scene and taken into custody. Following an extensive search of Hirst’s farm, NWROCU officers seized £183,865 cash from Remington’s vehicle, 505kg of cocaine, and 108kg of heroin estimated to be worth between £15-21m pounds wholesale.
On October 18 last year, NWROCU officers arrested Thomas Smith at his home address in Merseyside. Officers seized half a kilo of cocaine and 9807 MDMA tablets, with a street value of up to £167,000 and approximately £16,000 cash. They also recovered a notepad containing extensive records of his onward supply network.
And on October 26 2023, a search warrant was carried out at Station Road, Leatherhead which led to the arrest of Morgan Towner, who acted as a courier for an OCG based in the south of England. The NWROCU has now said that after the warrant was executed at the farm in North Wales, Charles Dilworth, 25, of Churston Road, Childwall, fled the scene and later left the country.
He was arrested at Manchester Airport upon his return and has been jailed for seven years and six months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs. Dilworth’s getaway car, a black Range Rover, was spotted by police in the area.
Five minutes later, the occupants of the car made a false 999 call claiming they had been kidnapped at knifepoint on their way to a local bar. A quick search by officers revealed that the bar had been closed since 2016.
They were later arrested and convicted for attempting to pervert the course of justice. Michael Hardie, 32, of Makin Street, Walton, was jailed for 12 months. Erin Lee, 22 and of Netherfield Road South, Everton, and Alesha Lee, 24 and of Smithdown Road, Wavertree, both received sentences of eight months' imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.
Further investigations into the gang dredged up CCTV footage of Menagh loading drugs into his van. The NWROCU said he was a class A drug supplier who helped the gang then distribute to the other couriers. The court heard he had been recruited in order to earn some quick cash and didn't have knowledge of the scope of the drug conspiracy
Michael Day, 36 and of Manchester Road in Prescot was jailed for six years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs. Day was also a courier who visited the farm.
David Hague, 50, of Owston Road, Doncaster was jailed for 9 years and four months after pleading guilty to possession with intent to supply class A drugs. He was a drug supplier from South Yorkshire who visited the farm eight times.
Mark Blower, 32, of Dartmouth Park Avenue, London was a London supplier who was controlling Morgan Towner, jailed back in March this year. Blower was jailed for 14 years and three months for conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
NWROCU Detective Chief Superintendent Ian Whitehead said: "These drugs would have originated from South America. We know some of the orchestration was carried out by people in Dubai. The drugs were brought onto mainland Europe and then through the ports into the UK for distribution.
"With the amount of drugs involved, this would have undoubtedly hit the streets across the whole of the UK. We know the individuals involved were as far as North Wales, London, Merseyside, but we know the distribution network operated far across the UK."
Following their sentencing at Chester Crown Court in March this year, Hirst, 38, of Pinfold Lane, Flintshire, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs (cocaine/ heroin), was jailed for 12 years. Remington, 48, of Welsh Bicknor, Herefordshire, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import and supply class A drugs (cocaine/ heroin) and was jailed for seven years.
Smith, 43, of Garrowby Drive, Huyton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs (cocaine/ heroin), possession with intent to supply a class A controlled drug, and possession of class B controlled drug (cannabis) and was jailed for 18 years. Towner, 47, of Station Road, Leatherhead, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs (cocaine/ heroin) and was jailed for seven years.
Senior Crown Prosecutor Nicola Wyn Williams of CPS Mersey-Cheshire’s Complex Casework Unit previously said: "This was a slick operation carried out with precision and planning. It is possibly the last thing that you could imagine happening at a farm in rural North Wales. But that was the key.
"The rural location provided privacy for the group to unload the huge quantities of heroin and cocaine stashed in a hide in the trailer. The nearby A55 and motorway network allowed couriers to collect and be on their way to distribute the drugs for onward supply all over the country."
DCS Whitehead told the ECHO: "These people were operating at the very highest level of drug importation and I have no doubt these levels of drugs have absolutely devastating consequences on communities. The distribution of drugs results in higher crime rates, violence and the exploitation of vulnerable people and young children."
