A DRUG dealer from the Rossendale valley was part of a gang which hid narcotics inside vehicle tyres and fridge freezers - and shared jail sentences totalling 73 years.


John Myles, 22, was part of a multi-million pound network stretching across the North West, dealing in cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines, which was eventually dismantled by Titan, the regional organised crime unit.

Detectives snared Myles, of Square Street, Ramsbottom, as the operation began to crumble in the summer of 2015, with officers picking off the frontmen and couriers one by one.

Liverpool Crown Court was told that 20,000 ecstasy tablets, a kilo of cocaine and four kilos of amphetamine were found at a garage, and nearly 100 kilos of amphetamines and m-cat, a form of mephedrone, was discovered hidden in freezers at a flat during the probe.


Myles’ co-conspirators had first aroused suspicions with police when Phillip Dyer and John McMahon began meeting in out-of-the-way places to discuss possible drugs deals.

Later they enlisted the help of taxi driver John Hinnigan to transport the illegal substances.


Another courier, Dean Davies, from West Yorkshire, was identified, after he was found with a kilo of high-purity cocaine in his vehicle following a stop-check.


Hinnigan and Dyer were then caught passing a packet of cocaine to Myles, who had travelled from his Ramsbottom town centre home to Liverpool city centre to collect the drugs.


Detectives followed Myles along the M62 before arresting him in Cheshire – he tried to flee after being pulled over, but was later found hiding in the undergrowth.


Myles, who was convicted of drugs conspiracy offences, was jailed for 40 months following a sentencing hearing at Liverpool Crown Court.


Investigators concentrated their observations on a garage in the Huyton area of Merseyside, where two fellow gang members, Colin Rafferty and Paul Morris, were found stuffing drugs in the cavities of car wheels during a raid, which uncovered the major drugs haul.


Garage owner Edward McCabe, who had been in close contact with Rafferty as the raid was ongoing, was trailed and detained by police. 


He was forced to hand over keys to a flat in the Garston area of Liverpool, where the amphetamines and m-cat haul was uncovered in freezers.


Speaking after the case, Det Insp David Keegan, the senior investigating officer, said: “Titan has thoroughly dismantled this organised crime group and stopped huge amounts of illegal drugs reaching the streets where they can do so much damage and harm.


“Through some carefully planned and professionally executed interventions, we succeeded in catching the gang in the act meaning they faced overwhelming evidence against them.”


McMahon, 45, McCabe, 37, and Dyer, all from Liverpool, were jailed for 13 years and four months, 12 years, and 10 years and 10 months respectively.
Hinnigan and Rafferty, also from Merseyside, were jailed for six years and eight months each.


Davies was jailed for 87 months at Bradford Crown Court. Another three couriers were jailed for more than 20 years at the same hearing. Another West Yorkshire man will be dealt with later this month.