A DRUG dealer who was caught purchasing huge quantities of cocaine for onward supply during a National Crime Agency investigation has been jailed for 15 years.

William Skillen, from Orford, was part of a conspiracy responsible for supplying around a quarter of a million pounds of the class A drug.

The 36-year-old bought the cocaine from a Manchester-based gang who had plotted a violent robbery in which members would torture a businessman in his own home and cut one of his ears off.

Warrington Guardian:

Six men incriminated by the probe, including Skillen, were locked up for a combined 133 years at Manchester Crown Court yesterday and today, Friday.

NCA investigations captured covert recordings of 58-year-old Gary Betts telling associates that he had hatched plans for a ‘nice job’ that would earn conspirators ‘plenty of dough’.

Gerard Boyle, also 53, and brothers Chris and John Sammon – aged 32 and 36 respectively – were also involved in the scheme, as was 39-year-old Wayne Simmonds from Hertfordshire.

The organised crime group believed the target kept substantial amounts of cash at his home.

After bugging the gang’s base, police heard Betts say on one occasion: “His dad’s an old man and there’s only one kid in the house.

“You’ve got to give him a f***ing slap, you know what I mean?

“To tell you where the dough is.”

He also stated at one point: “I’d just walk in and I’ll just bang him and just tie him up and cut his ear off and then tell him, I’ve been down your area and cut people up.

“Believe me, I’ll blowtorch your balls and cut your ear off.

“Put it this way, I know an iron hurts in your chest.”

Cash and Encrochat phones were discovered during a dawn raid on Skillen’s home on Long Lane in June last year.

Warrington Guardian:

He was not involved in the robbery plot.

Skillen, who used the Encrochat handle Savage Arrow during his secret communications, previously admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and failing to comply with a serious crime prevention order.

This order was imposed after previous convictions for drug dealing offences in 2012 and 2017, the latter of which saw a heroin and cocaine racket operating an underground ‘Breaking Bad-style’ den – with a secret staircase to the cellar having been hidden by a fridge.

The remaining defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to commit robbery at Manchester Crown Court today, Tuesday, following a seven-week trial.

They had also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine – having been involved in supply class A drugs worth nearly a quarter of a million pounds.

NCA operations manager Jon Sayers said: “These men were clearly prepared to inflict shocking levels of violence to achieve their criminal ambitions, which included targeting an elderly man and his family.

“They used a legitimate business premises to plan their drug dealing and it became apparent that their links to this abhorrent trade, which causes violence and exploitation in our communities, were serious and organised.

“Simmonds and Skillen also thought using EncroChat would leave them beyond law enforcement’s reach, but they were wrong.

“We were monitoring the crime group and took action before they could cause any more harm.

“These sentences show that the NCA, working with partners like the Metropolitan Police flying squad and Greater Manchester Police, will relentlessly pursue perpetrators and bring them to justice.”