A drug trafficker’s years on the run ended with gunshots being fired at police in Spain. Anthony Finnigan fled the country after becoming involved in a nationwide plot to supply hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of amphetamine and cannabis.

While he was said to have left the UK as he was “under immense stress which got the better of him”, Interpol would later catch up with him on the continent in possession of a bounty of dozens of firearms. He has now finally been brought to justice, nearly five years on, over a £100,000 haul of drugs which was found hidden inside a freezer.

Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday afternoon, Tuesday, that Finnigan leased a house on Hammill Street in St Helens in March 2020, claiming to the landlord that he had split up with his partner and paying the rent up front. However, on May 14 that year, Merseyside Police forced entry to the address while executing a search warrant and found the 37-year-old in the living room as the sole occupant of the premises.

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Jonathan Keane, prosecuting, described how, when asked if there were any drugs on the property, the defendant replied “just what’s upstairs in the freezer”. Officers then found 26 packages of amphetamine inside this appliance, drugs weighing a total of 52kg and valued at between £40,800 and £104,000.

It was also discovered that all of the three bedrooms had been transformed into cannabis farms, with 88 such plants found across the home. This grow had a potential yield of up to 7,392g, class B drugs worth in the region of £24,000 to £110,000.

PCs subsequently attended Finnigan’s parents’ house on Page Moss Lane and seized a number of handwritten notes from his bedroom, documents which detailed a customer base spread as far afield as Newport, Sheffield, Blackpool and Manchester. Under interview, he told detectives that he had been homeless at the time and that “others set up the operation in the house” and stored the drugs in the freezer.

Finnigan was later released on bail following a court hearing in August 2021, but failed to attend his sentencing date later that year. Interpol then executed a search warrant in Spain on June 20 2024, at which time he was found with his “hands on a large quantity of firearms” alongside another male.

Shots were said to have been fired towards officers as this raid was carried out, although it could not ultimately be established which of the men was responsible for the discharge. Finnigan was initially handed three years in prison for storing this weapon, although this sentence was later replaced by his deportation, a ban from entering Spain for 10 years and being disqualified from standing for election in the country.

The ECHO previously reported that armed officers attended an address in Murcia on the date in question, with a “gun discharged in the direction of the attending officers”. “Warning shots” were then fired in response, with the males being “detained without sustaining any injuries” and a total of 36 viable firearms and 755 bullets being recovered from the property.

Finnigan was extradited back to the UK in order to face his outstanding court proceedings earlier this month. He has three previous convictions, including receiving five years in a young offenders’ institute for firearms offences in 2007 and 44 months for possession of cannabis with intent to supply in 2011.

Brendan Carville, defending, told the court: “Can I explain why he did not attend? He attended on at least two previous occasions for sentence. It was on the third occasion that the defendant did not attend.

“He was under immense stress. He knew he was going to prison, and that got the better of him. For that, he apologises. He was anxious to come home. He had a long wait to be extradited. He did not oppose extradition.”

Finnigan admitted possession of amphetamine with intent to supply, production of cannabis, abstracting electricity and failing to surrender to custody. Appearing via video link to HMP Liverpool wearing a grey prison issue jumper, he was jailed for six years and two months.

Sentencing, Recorder Richard Pratt KC said: “It is clear that what the police discovered was a sophisticated operation for the supply of drugs at wholesale level. You failed to attend for your sentencing after a judge made adverse findings at a Newton hearing.

“You went to Spain where, it seems, you committed offences involving firearms. You have an earlier conviction involving class B drugs. It was an operation at a fairly high level, certainly above street supply.

“The prosecution advance that you were operating a leading role. That is not necessarily to say that you were at the top of the operation. Although there was a gap of 10 years, I cannot ignore the fact that you have a previous conviction involving the supply of cannabis for which a serious view was plainly taken by the court.”