Eight men await sentencing after blocks of cocaine worth ‘thousand of pounds’ each transported to Preston from Liverpool

Who was involved?

Brothers Lee and Christopher Ormandy were the wholesale dealers in Liverpool, arranging for the drugs to be delivered.

Steven Smith was their trusted driver, taking the cocaine from Merseyside to Preston.

They had three sets of wholesale customers in Preston who were retail drug suppliers:

- The first set of customers were Saqub Hussain and Amin Patel – Patel was a drug runner for Hussain.

- Another customer was Daniel Eastham, who was visited around 25 times by the Ormandy brothers and Smith.

- The third set of customers were brothers George and James Heary, who were visited 23 times by the Ormandy brothers.

These three sets of customers were independent of one another.

What did they do with the blocks of cocaine?

The customers would break the large blocks of cocaine down before diluting it and selling it on in much smaller amounts.

How were they caught?

Lancashire Police tracked the offenders over a 10-month period in 2020 during Operation Highgate.

After establishing the pattern of what the offenders were doing, officers stopped Smith’s Ford C-Max car at a petrol station in New Hall Lane on October 25, 2020

That day, police said there had been a “flurry of contact” between the Ormandy brothers and Eastham, and between the Ormandy’s and Smith.

When Smith’s car was searched, a 0.5kg block of pressed cocaine was found in a bin liner packed into a cat food box under the front passenger seat.

Officers said the cocaine was valued at between £13,400 and £19,500m, but worth up to £22,000 if bulked out to a typical purity at street level.

That block of cocaine was destined for Eastham’s house and was a typical delivery in this network, police said.

After the cocaine was discovered in Smith’s car, warrants were carried out at the homes of the other suspects and they were arrested.

What were they charged with?

Six of the men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine. They were:

- Lee Ormandy, 50, of Ashbury Road, Huyton, Liverpool

- Christopher Ormandy, 40, of Ashbury Road, Huyton, Liverpool

- Daniel Eastham, 32, of Downing Street, Preston

- Saqub Hussain, 43, of St Paul’s Road, Preston

- Amin Patel, 47, of Holmrook Road, Preston

- Steven Smith, 38, of Saxby Street, Liverpool

George Heary, 26, of Cloughfield Road, Penwortham, and James Heary, 32, of Norris Street, Preston, denied conspiracy to supply cocaine.

They were found guilty by a jury after a trial at Preston Crown Court last week.

All will be sentenced on November 23 and 24.

Det Sgt Richard Clancy, of Preston Police, said: “This was an extensive investigation into the importation of Class A drugs into Lancashire from Merseyside.

“The drugs were sourced by Lee and Christopher Ormandy, then transported from Huyton, Liverpool, into Preston using Steven Smith as a courier.

“Daniel Eastham, Saqub Hussain, Amin Patel, George Heary and James Heary would then distribute cocaine within Preston.

“Our investigation led to the dismantling of an organised supply of Class A drugs.

“Drug dealing and drug taking brings misery and a range of issues to communities and we are determined to bring those involved in the supply of drugs to justice.”