Cleaner-turned-gangster rose to the top - before fall

A GANGSTER who benefited from crime to the tune of £2 million will lose his luxury watches as prosecutors seek to claw back his ill-gotten gains.

- BY ANDREW BARDSLEY

Andrew Cooney was part of a crime gang responsible for the biggest gun running plot ever countered by UK law enforcement.

The firm which also featured a Rochdale man was also involved in large scale drug supply. The gang operated its main stash house from Cotton Field Wharf, a plush residential development at Ancoats marina, where guns, ammunition, drugs and ‘vast’ amounts of cash were stored.

A judge previously said the gang were responsible for criminality on an ‘exceptional scale’.

They were behind the supply of cocaine worth £70m, and sold 48 Skorpion machine pistols to other gangsters across the UK and Ireland. The guns were sold for between £9,000 and £15,000 each.

Cooney, also known as ‘Mr Italy’ due to his property in the country, was involved in the supply of drugs and firearms, and also acted as a broker for the gang.

At his Alderley Edge home, officers found a kilo of cocaine in his Audi A3, as well as two Porsches parked outside.

He also had luxury watches, phones, a vacuum packing machine and paperwork for an Italian villa.