11 county lines gangs supplied £1m of drugs in Warrington

The ‘largest county lines operation’ in Cheshire Police’s history has brought down 11 separate gangs responsible for supplying up to 11kg of heroin and crack cocaine over the span of 11 months.

This week, several of the conspirators will face sentence at Liverpool Crown Court.

And this is the inside story of the covert investigation and its subjects – from Mr Onion and Long Haired Luke to Scouse Billy and the Lenny Team.

Operation Spartans

The force’s serious and organised crime unit first opened the investigation, codenamed Operations Spartans, in November 2020.

It would culminate in a series of raids across the town and beyond in August the following year, with probes then continuing until October 2021.

Police raid a house on Longshaw Street in Bewsey

While officers would ultimately identify 11 separate county lines gangs, largely based in Warrington itself as well as Liverpool and Manchester – including the Lenny Team, the Scouse Billy Line, the Scouse T Line, the Scouse Joe Line, the Paul Line and the Curly Line – five organised crime groups in particular sprung to prominence.

They were the Onion Line, the JJ Line, the Jonno Line, the Long Haired Luke Line and Long Haired Luke 2.

The most lucrative were netting between £1,000 and £2,000 per day, ill-gotten cash which funded expensive clothing worth thousands of pounds and £700 pairs of trainers.

Detectives estimated that somewhere in the region of 5.5kg and 11kg of the class A substances were supplied by all 11 OCGs – coming with an estimated street value of between £550,000 and £1.1million.

The Onion Line

Back in November 2020, the Onion Line was the most prolific gang selling heroin and crack cocaine in Warrington.

The Merseyside-based gang had been operating in the town for around three or four years by this point, led by Shane Unwin – known as Mr Onion on account of his surname.

He was known to the police prior to Operation Spartans, in part because he had carved his nickname into a tree in Sankey Valley Park – a popular dealing spot for the OCG – ‘indicating that his county line had taken over the area’.

This inscription read ‘2020 Onion ov Longy Huyton’ – a reference to his native Longview estate – alongside a message stating ‘**** the drug squad’.

Unwin dealt drugs wearing an £800 Canada Goose jacket alongside right-hand man Callum Cargin, with the county line travelling into the town for criminal purposes on an almost daily basis.

Users were ‘taken advantage of’ and had their homes used as bases for selling and storing drugs in order to pay off drugs or in return for cash or drugs.

But things ‘came to a head’ on May 20 2021 when officers raided a house on Leicester Street in Whitecross and seized a quantity of drugs, some packaged into £10 deals and others in bulk quantities, as well as £1,300 in cash.

Cash seized during the raid

Unwin and Cargin were present in the address, as were ‘street runners’ Jack Murphy, Elizabeth Andrew and Nicola Ryder (pictured below).

In the six months leading up to this date, the OCG had been responsible for the supply of 1.4kg to 2.9kg of heroin and crack cocaine – drugs with a street value of between £122,000 and £244,000.

The Long Haired Luke Line and Long Haired Luke 2

The Salford-based operation first emerged during the course of the investigation in roughly February 2021, but quickly overtook the Onion Line as the premier heroin and crack dealing gang in Warrington.

Under the moniker of the Long Haired Luke Line, the OCG was initially operated by a ‘couple of locals dealing on the Orford estate’.

But, almost overnight, the county line was taken over by Greater Manchester crooks.

Craig Williams, from Salford, was in charge and closely assisted by Mason Clemans and Des Challoner.

A police source told the Warrington Guardian: “All of a sudden they just disappeared, and Long Haired Luke 2 had taken over.

“There was no suggestion to say that there had been any violence towards them, this other group had just taken over that line.

“Sometimes lines are sold, sometimes somebody who is controlling the line has been subject to an intervention elsewhere or something has happened in someone’s personal life which has moved them away from being responsible – it could be for any number of reasons.

“It was quite worrying to see how the county lines arrive in a town and how quickly they can gain a foothold and become well-established.”

In the space of a few short months, the line had become a ‘lucrative’ business, and by June 2021 between 1.7kg and 3.5kg of heroin and crack cocaine – worth between £178,000 and £356,000 – had been shipped to the town in a stolen car by the outfit.

Addresses on Longshaw Street in Bewsey, Pickmere Street in Sankey Bridges and Gregory Close in Old Hall were taken over by the gang before officers intervened.

Conspirator Joshua McDougall was dealing from the latter property on June 30 2021 when he was spotted ‘acting suspiciously’ in a footpath linking Cromwell Avenue and Ross Close.

Officers searched the then teenager and found that he was carrying 54 wraps of heroin and 27 of crack with a street value of around £760.

He was also in possession of a lock knife and nearly £200 in cash, and had a ‘large machete’ concealed down his trousers.

The JJ Line and the Jonno Joe Line

The JJ Line was initially led by John Palmer, a thug who once set his dog on a man who died of a bleed on the brain less than a week later.

His gang is believed to have been supplied by upstream Scouse OCGs, and investigations led to a raid at a house in Latchford village in March 2021.

Officers were expecting to find street dealer Tre Freeman inside, but instead got the main man himself as well as co-defendant Ewan Burrows.

The pair were in the process of bagging up drugs, and Palmer attempted to flee the Knutsford Road address but was intercepted by a second team of waiting officers outside.

‘Runner’ Burrows meanwhile burst into tears after being busted.

Detectives then executed a search warrant at a flat on Rylands Street in the town centre which was also being leased by Palmer, and where more drugs were being stored.

In total, class A and B substances with a street value of roughly £13,000 – namely £6,000 of cocaine, £3,500 of crack cocaine, £2,000 of heroin and £1,500 of cannabis – were seized from the two properties.

It put the dad-of-two back behind bars for another serious conviction, having been jailed for three years in January 2011 for inflicting grievous bodily harm, being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

This followed a feud between Palmer and Simon Whittall over drugs which sparked a violent street brawl on Froghall Lane in Bewsey on a Thursday afternoon in September 2009 and spilled out into the road, halting traffic.

Mr Whittall was mauled with his assailant’s American bulldog and stamped on as he lay injured on the floor, as well as being struck with a metal chain and kicked.

The victim – who suffered dog bites to his arms, legs, torso and groin – collapsed at a friend’s house three days later and was rushed to hospital, but died aged 39 six days after the altercation.

But it ‘could not be established’ if he had died as a result of Palmer’s assault.

Following his conviction, he posted a picture on Facebook of himself laughing while holding a copy of the Warrington Guardian in which news of his attack featured on the front page.

Fast forward to April 2021, Freeman remained at large ‘kicking his heels’ and – with JJ out of the way – he ‘promoted himself’ and took over the running of the gang.

This was the beginning of the Jonno Joe Line, with the new leader using his knowledge of the operation and access to addicts to his advantage.

Originally from Warrington but by now based in St Helens, he and friends Connor Houghton and Ellis Rigby drove around in a stolen BMW X3 dealing before being ensnared when a ‘squalid’ one-bedroom maisonette on Reynolds Street in Latchford was raided on May 5 2021.

Despite his young age, teenager Freeman is no stranger to the law.

He was handed a suspended sentence in 2020 after a two-week crime spree in which £10,000 of mopeds and push bikes were stolen.

The 19-year-old was then jailed for 40 months in August 2021 after trying to run over a police officer and crashing into cars and a wall at Fox Covert Cemetery on Halloween the previous year then brandishing a knife during a street fight.

Co-operation

Perhaps bizarrely, given the sheer number of gangs involved in the supply of drugs at the same time and considering organised crime groups are not usually afraid of confrontation, there was little if any evidence of violence between the 11 factions.

The police source said: “There is often a lot of violence associated with county lines but, during our investigation, we didn’t see much violence between the county lines.

“We didn’t see much fighting amongst themselves or a turf war, they appeared to be co-existing.

“One day they might have somebody from one team in a part of Warrington, then the next day it was someone from another team.

“Looking from the outside in, it was almost like they had an arrangement as to who operated where and when.

“They were actually very polite to each other, which you don’t normally get.”

The strike date

At dawn on August 11 2021, Cheshire Police executed search warrants at a total of 28 address across the north west as part of Operation Spartans.

Nearly 400 officers were involved in the operation, with 25 suspects arrested on that date and expensive watches, vehicles, mountain bikes and cash among the items recovered.

In total, 42 men and women were charged and convicted of drugs offences in connection with the investigation.

Mark Little being arrested during a raid on Town Hill

But, for the constabulary’s serious and organised crime unit, the work continues.

The force insider added: “It’s an unusually high number of convictions, and it reflects the length of the operation and the volume of county lines operating in Warrington during that period.

“It’s often these more established county lines which are harder for local policing units to tackle.

“In taking out the longer established lines, it does provide a new opportunity for local policing teams to tackle the inevitable attempts to backfill.

“It’s certainly not a case of we’ve done our bit, well done us.

“We’re part of a bigger picture of making Cheshire hostile to organised crime.”

These are the 42 drug dealers convicted by Operation Spartans:

The Onion Line

• Elizabeth Andrew, 52, of Huyton – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and was handed a 15-month imprisonment suspended for a year in October 2021
• Kris Bamford, 36, of Whitecross Road in Whitecross – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin
• Callum Cargin, 26, of Huyton – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Paul Ellis, 56, of Rixton Avenue in Bewsey – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Darren Houghton, 49, of Trafford Avenue in Bewsey – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Jack Murphy, 20, of Liverpool – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Nicola Ryder, 31, of Widnes – admitted possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply and was jailed for 30 months in October 2021
• Shane Unwin, 27, of Huyton – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine

The Long Haired Luke Line

• Andrea Hampson, 50, of Toll Bar Road in Orford – admitted supplying heroin and crack cocaine
• Nicolas Maher, 50, of Bexhill Avenue in Orford – admitted supplying heroin and crack cocaine

Long Haired Luke 2

• Alex Brady, 21, of Salford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Des Challoner, 20, of Manchester – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Mason Clemans, 19, of Salford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Jayden Clifford, 18, of Manchester – admitted conspiracy to supply cannabis
• Antony Cragg, 32, of Longshaw Street in Bewsey – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Keelan Emery, 22, of Salford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• William Ferguson, 40, of Salford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Mark Ingle, 45, of Longshaw Street in Bewsey – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Daniel Kilcourse, 23, of Salford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Joshua McDougall, 20 of Salford – admitted possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply and was jailed for two years and three months in September 2021
• Courtney Moss, 25, of Salford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Saje Nearon, 42, of Birmingham – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Johnathan Newns, 21, of Salford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Robert Spakouskas, 44, of Brook Drive in Great Sankey – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Craig Williams, 20, of Salford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine

The JJ Line

• Ewan Burrows, 21, of Slater Street in Latchford – admitted possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply and was jailed for two years in March 2021
• Tre Freeman, 19, of St Helens – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• John Palmer, 39, of Knutsford Road in Latchford – admitted possession of heroin and crack with intent to supply and was jailed for five years and three months in March 2021

The Jonno Joe Line

• Tre Freeman (see the JJ Line)
• Connor Houghton, 20, of the Crescent in Lymm – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Ellis Rigby, 19, of Reynolds Street in Latchford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine

The Lenny Team

• Barry Jones, 52, of Algernon Street in Fairfield – admitted conspiracy to supply crack cocaine
• Mark Little, 38, of Town Hill in Warrington town centre – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Matthew Little, 34, of Melville Close in Orford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine

The Scouse Billy Line

• Anthony Westhead, 46, of Melville Close in Orford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine

The Paul Line

• Stephen Brett, 25, of Liverpool – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and possession of cannabis with intent to supply
• James Heys, 42, of Poachers Lane in Latchford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Callum Hubbersty, 21, of Charlton Street in Latchford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Kane Nixon, 20, of Cromwell Court in Warrington town centre – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine
• Kyle Thomas, 25, of Watkin Street in Orford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine

The Scouse T Line

• James O’Rourke, 33, of Liverpool – admitted possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply

The Scouse Joe Line

• Luke Jackson, 18, of Runcorn – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine

The Curly Line

• Roberto Stratford, 21, of Manchester – admitted possession of heroin with intent to supply

The Warrington Guardian website will have live updates from the courtroom as members of Long Haired Luke 2 are sentenced on Wednesday and Thursday.

You can can find today's blog by clicking here.

The remaining defendants will be sentenced at a later date.