Drug kingpins 'Big Man' and 'Scouse Phil' flooded entire city with Class A drugs
The story of how a gang of drug dealers led by the notorious 'Big Man' flooded an entire city with heroin and cocaine has been blown wide open through a high-profile court case.
The drug dealers hailed from the Merseyside area and worked with connections in Plymouth to deliver the Class As to the city using couriers who would travel back and forth collecting money and delivering the drugs. Once the drugs - with a street value of around £380,000 - arrived in the port city they would be distributed by a series of underlings. The Devonshire pushers also helped deposit the ill-gotten gains into bank accounts, Liverpool Echo reported.
The principal organiser in the conspiracy was Michael Slemen, 42, of Richland Road, Old Swan, who was known in the gang as 'Slim' or 'Big Man', Plymouth Crown Court heard during a trial which began in early November last year.
Stanley Feerick, 69, of Longreach Road, was found guilty on a charge of conspiracy to supply cocaine and was sentenced to two years and three months. (DevonLive/BPM)
Robert Sefton, 63, of Sandringham Road, was found guilty on two charges of conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin. He was sentenced to five-and-a-half years (DevonLive/BPM)Slemen was the "director of operations" and the "leader" of the organisation. Judge Peter Johnson said Slemen was arrested but refused to quit pushing the drugs even then. Underneath the leader worked Ryan Edwards, 38, of Wantage Gardens, Plymouth, who was a courier in the gang. The 38-year-old made regular trips to and from Liverpool and had become "a trusted member of the conspiracy", the court heard.
A key distributor and lieutenant in the group was Kristian Edwards, 46, of Wantage Gardens, Plymouth. Originally from Liverpool, he went by the nickname "Scouse Phil". Edwards was referred to in court as the "key person in Plymouth" - the "conduit through which the money and drugs were to be passed".
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Edwards told the court he didn't financially benefit from the illegal enterprise, but the Judge Johnson refused to believe his claims, saying there was a "huge amount of money unaccounted for". Also in the gang were Michelle Smith, 55, of Wadham Terrace, Plymouth and Sonia McCormick, 43, of Moorlands Gardens, Plymouth who acted as sub-dealers.
Judge Johnson said on the face of it Smith had an "unblemished past" and seemed like a "caring person, someone who is kind, helpful and personal". However, the judge said: "Of course, who would suspect a lady of middle age or good character and acting as a driving instructor... who would suspect in fact she was intimately involved in the supply of class A drugs."
Smith, who rang the gang's warehouse, was found to have half a kilo of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine and amphetamine in her house. Also in the gang were couriers from Liverpool, Robert Sefton, 63, of Sandringham Road, Tuebrook and Stanley Feerick, 69, of Longreach Road, Dovecot.
The trial heard two other men were initially arrested as part of the conspiracy. Michael Barnshaw, of Cheriton Close, West Park, died on October 16, 2022 and Alan McMahon, of Mount Stone Road, Stonehouse, died on April 29, 2023. The criminal enterprise was bust open after officers from Devon and Cornwall Police's Serious and Organised Crime Investigation Team launched Operation Hacker in March 2019.
Detectives monitored the group's messages online and together with cell site analysis of mobile phones, CCTV and covert surveillance, they built a picture of how the operation was run. Slemen used a dual handset phone with two telephone numbers as well as burner phones. He would use one number to contact his sub-dealers and one to contact his supplier, Smith, then arranging buyers to visit her.
He would use couriers to deliver the drugs to the South West on a regular basis. During courier trips, Kristian Edwards would be in contact with couriers and Slemen to coordinate the logistics of each run. Money would then be returned to Slemen in Liverpool, with unexplained cash being deposited into his bank account on a regular basis.
Gang members would also make the journey from Liverpool to Plymouth by train, often returning on the same day or the day after, while staying in regular contact with each other during the trip. Members of the gang were eventually arrested between 2020 and 2021 when a series of coordinated warrants were executed at properties in Plymouth and Merseyside.
During a sentencing hearing at Plymouth Crown Court last week, Judge Johnson said the two two conspiracies - which were effectively one large conspiracy - ran from March 2019 to June 2020 and involved bringing "large quantities of heroin and cocaine transported in exchange for large quantities of cash" from Merseyside to Plymouth.
Judge Johnson outlined the impact the dealing and the sale of the drugs had on society. "Those who would turn to crime to feed their addictions, acquisitive crimes, shoplifting, robbery, burglary including burglary of homes - the effect on the innocent householders is immeasurable. Users will often sell their bodies, souls and self respect. So let us not be shrinking violets about what this conspiracy was all about," he said.
"No matter what role you played - whether for a period in excess of a year or just a day, you were feeding off the misery of others, including the wholly innocent children of those users. The devastating effects of drug abuse could be seen during the trial. Sonya McCormick described the effects on her, being introduced [to drugs] by a partner and the resultant downward spiral to feed her addiction. As she described it - it destroyed her life."
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The seven members of the drug gang appeared at Plymouth Crown Court on Friday, February 2 where they were jailed for a total of 56 years after they had either pleaded guilty or were convicted on charges of conspiring to supply class A drugs.
Gang leader Slemen pleaded guilty to four charges of conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin. He was sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison. Ryan Edwards pleaded guilty to the same four charges. He was sentenced to serve a term of 12 years. Kristian Edwards was found guilty on two charges of conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin. He was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in jail.
Smith pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin and was also found guilty of possession with intent to supply amphetamines. She was sentenced to serve seven-and-a-half years in prison.
McCormick was found guilty on two charges of conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin. She was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison. Sefton was found guilty on two charges of conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin. He was sentenced to five-and-a-half years. Feerick was found guilty on a charge of conspiracy to supply cocaine and was sentenced to two years and three months.
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