Drug gang is jailed for 100 years

MEMBERS of a gang who holidayed together in Turkey have been jailed for more than 100 years.

- by ADAM EVERETT

Joshua Hayes, who called himself “the Boss Man”, and his co-conspirators were brought down by a secret bug which police planted in his Mercedes.

As well as running a lucrative drugs supply line, the organised crime group also kept Skorpion submachine guns hidden inside a hole within the walls of a flat. They even arranged for a plasterer to carry out work on the apartment to ensure the deadly weapons could be hidden away from the police.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Merseyside Police initially searched two flats on Condron Road North in Litherland on July 13 last year, believing that firearms were being kept inside. While they did not discover any such weapons at this stage, detectives then reviewed materials which had been obtained “as a result of a device within Mr Hayes’ car”.

Nicola Daley, prosecuting, described how this related to conversations between the 34-year-old and Co-defendants Anthony Bennett, James Harrison and Georgie Medway which had taken place inside the Mercedes three weeks earlier on June 21, 2024. This saw them discuss enlisting a plasterer in order to ensure that the firearms were kept “proper safe” in a “hole in the wall”.

This led to officers returning to one of the flats, the address of drug user Michael Caldwell, and drilling through a newly plastered and redecorated area. They then recovered three separate bags wrapped inside a tea towel, each containing a firearm, from inside a “void” in the walls.