Gang which flooded Blackpool with heroin and crack cocaine jailed for 66 year

Police have warned drug dealers they are in the firing line after a gang who flooded Blackpool with class A drugs were jailed for a total of 66 years.

The organised crime gang known to drug users in Blackpool as ‘Scouse Macca’ were responsible for 18,000 separate deals in less than six months.

Members of the gang were responsible for supplying heroin and crack cocaine within Blackpool.

The gang was brought down by Operation Kaleidoscope which ran from August to December 2015.

In less than six months Lancashire Police were able to work out how ‘Scouse Macca’ supplied their customers through the use of a single main telephone number that users would associate with the group and call to order drugs.

A conservative estimate, cited during the sentencing proceedings, was that the gang carried out 18,000 deals during the 144-day operation.

HOW DID IT WORK?

John Paul Hodson (later jailed for nine years) was the controller of and the person in possession of the ‘Macca’ phone.

Trevor Pollard was the right hand man of Hodson and the courier of drugs and cash between Liverpool and Blackpool and that at times he would be in possession of the phone.

The phone would accept and make an enormously high volume of calls each day. It would receive phone calls from customers ordering drugs anda call would then be made to the gang’s middle man based in Blackpool.

The middle man would then contact a runner who in turn would meet with the customer and deal drugs to them in return for cash.

Control of the runners in the Blackpool area was facilitated by a middleman, this middleman was Ben Fraser.

The operation also identified that the gang used a ‘safe house’ in Cheltenham Road, North Shore.

This was the home address of Terence Pollard.

The cash was collected and stored here and when drugs were brought over from Liverpool by Hodson and Trevor Pollard, they would initially be stored here.

HOW WAS THE GANG BROUGHT DOWN?

Operation Kaleidoscope concluded on December 16, 2015, with numerous search warrants being conducted in Lancashire and Liverpool.

At the home address of Hodson 308 individual wraps of heroin were recovered along with cash, phones and other items.

Sixteen people were charged with conspiring to supply crack cocaine and heroin in Blackpool. Eleven of those pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court and five pleaded not guilty.A trial

went ahead in February and lasted four weeks. Four out of the five defendants were convicted of Conspiracy to Supply class A drugs.

‘WE’RE COMING TO GET YOU’

Det Chief Insp Becky Smith, of Blackpool CID, said: “This operation has dismantled a gang responsible for the supply of hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of Class A drugs.

“Their activities brought misery to those addicted to drugs and their loved ones.

“We will not tolerate it here in Blackpool and if you are involved in that type of activity, we will find you and put you before the courts.”