'We've dented drug trade and dismantled the Huyton Firm'

DETECTIVES CELEBRATE AFTER COGGINS BROTHERS CAGED

- By PATRICK EDRICH

THE police team which took down the Huyton Firm believe they have dismantled the group for good after caging its two co-leaders - Francis and Vincent Coggins.

The North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU) senior investigating officer believes his team have punched a considerable hole in the region's class A drug supply by removing the upper echelons of the crime group and their lieutenants.

And Detective Chief Inspector David Worthington also hinted at the level the Stockbridge Villagebased gang was operating at, revealing how older brother Francis Coggins was "a conduit between the international drug dealers", acting as "the first line supplier into the UK".

DCI Worthington spoke to the ECHO as Francis Coggins, 60, was jailed for 18 years after he admitted a series of drugs offences born out of Operation SubZero - the NWROCUled probe which resulted in some of the first convictions using data obtained from the hacked EncroChat platform.

The long-running investigation, which followed the National Crime Agency's Operation Venetic, has seen at least 10 members of the gang jailed for a total of more than 170 years, while other probes have removed some of the gang's key associates who held significant roles in the supply chain.

While most of the gang, including 59-year-old Vincent, were arrested in June 2020 after investigators were forced to step in after a potentially deadly blackmail plot was put in place to try and recover £1m of stolen cocaine taken from a stash house, Francis remained in Europe.

Vincent Coggins was jailed for 28 years, while his brother was finally apprehended in June this year after Dutch police found him drunk in the street and returned him to the UK.

DCI Worthington told the ECHO: "Francis and Vincent worked hand in glove.

"They were the top of the crime group, the heads of the crime group, if you like.