Mark Quinn was eventually caught in Holland after he spent seven years on the run
Mark Quinn during his career as a boxing coach on Merseyside (Image: Liverpool ECHO )
A former boxing coach who became a “most wanted fugitive” used an empty nursing home as a factory for an £11m amphetamine trafficking ring. Mark Quinn fled the UK after the high-level drugs ring was brought down in 2014 by a series of raids carried out in Scotland and Merseyside.
His picture was driven around Spain’s Costa del Sol on the side of a van as part of a major National Crime Agency (NCA) campaign to catch suspects thought to be hiding abroad. It wasn’t until October 2021 that Quinn was finally apprehended, when a joint operation by the NCA, Police Scotland and Dutch counterparts tracked him to Maastricht in Holland.
Quinn was extradited to Scotland appeared appeared before Edinburgh’s high court, where he admitted trafficking amphetamines. The tipping point that led to the downfall of Quinn’s operation came during a search of Alder Grange nursing home in West Derby, which was found being used to prepare and bulk out the drugs for onward supply.
As part of a weekly series looking back at Merseyside’s criminal history, the ECHO has taken a closer look at Quinn’s involvement in class B drug supply and the efforts of a cross-border police operation to bring him to justice.
Quinn, from Stockbridge Village, was an established and respected name in Merseyside’s amateur and professional boxing world. He worked with a number of prodigies across the city and trained big name fighters at some of Liverpool’s top clubs.
Quinn attended a number of high profile media events before big fights and was in the corner on some of the city’s biggest boxing nights at the ECHO arena in 2011. He was also friendly with a number of prominent footballers, who he crossed paths with due to his boxing work.
He first became a target in 2013 during a Police Scotland surveillance probe, codenamed Operation Kapuas, which was aimed at taking down members of an organised crime group (OCG). In August that year, officers watched an apparent drugs handover take place in Lanarkshire and later searched a flat in Saucel Crescent, Paisley, in Renfrewshire, where the load had been taken for storage.
They recovered 112kg of the class B drug, worth up to £3m on the streets, and later discovered Quinn’s fingerprints on packaging. In February the following year, police watched a Ford Transit van being driven south from Scotland to Liverpool.
Quinn later drove the van into the grounds of Alder Grange nursing home, which once counted Everton legend Dixie Dean as a resident, where he was seen loading items into the rear of the vehicle. The van was later stopped northbound on the M74 and taken to Motherwell police station, where it was found to be transporting 100kg of amphetamine worth £2.4m on the streets.
The following month Quinn was seen in the company of others at a car auction business in Edinburgh before travelling to Stepps, in North Lanarkshire. He later met up with a Scotsman in Liverpool and after a visit to the nursing home the accomplice was later stopped driving north. He was found to have 100kg of amphetamine worth £3.2m on the street.
Merseyside Police were granted a warrant to search the nursing home and a search was carried out over two days. It became apparent work was being carried out to renovate the building, with police observing a number of construction workers onsite. However, items were also recovered which indicated the premises were being used for the production and preparation of amphetamine from amphetamine oil.
Face masks, basins, mixing paddles, gloves and packaging were found along with barrels of methanol and sulphuric acid which can be used to make amphetamine paste. A heat sealing machine was also found along with sealed bags of the class B drug worth in excess of £2m, along with bulking agents.
A warrant was issued for Quinn in 2014 and, after he disappeared, a European arrest warrant followed the year after. Little was heard about Quinn in the following years, after the wanted man went to ground on the continent. In 2019 his mugshot was driven around Spain’s Costa del Sol on the side of a van as part of a major campaign to catch suspects thought to be abroad.
There was also rumour Quinn had gone to Dubai. But in a major development in Quinn’s case, the NCA confirmed in October 2021 that Quinn had been held in Maastricht – a city in the south of Holland. The following month Quinn was brought back to Scotland.
Mark Quinn(Image: NCA handout)
A spokesperson for Scotland’s Prosecution Service said that Quinn appeared before Paisley Sheriff Court on November 5 2021 when he faced charges under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. No plea was entered and he was remanded into custody to appear at a later date.
Quinn, formerly of Craven Lea in West Derby, admitted being concerned in the supply of amphetamine between August 21 2013 and April 24 2014. He returned for sentence in September 2022.
Advocate depute David McLean said the amphetamine production line at the nursing home showed “a level of sophistication rarely encountered, and is representative of an established organised criminal network, which operates at the upper levels of drug supply and trafficking”.
Defence counsel Gail Gianni said Quinn was a joiner who worked in the building trade. She said there was a project to turn the nursing home into luxury flats but it ran into difficulties after a bank that was providing financing pulled out.
She said: “Mr Quinn would have carried out all the building work and he would have made a substantial sum of money from that project.” She said he ran into financial problems and asked “certain people” for a loan of money. She said: “Once he had done that he was easy prey for them.”
Speaking after Quinn was jailed for seven years, procurator fiscal for specialist casework Laura Buchan said Quinn “played a significant role in an organised criminal network involved in the international supply and trafficking of drugs”.
NCA branch commander Ian Thomas said: “Mark Quinn organised for millions of pounds worth of amphetamine to be sent to Scotland for sale on the streets. These drugs have a corrosive impact on our communities, causing deaths and harm.
“Quinn tried to hide from the consequences of his crimes for years, but with our partners at Police Scotland and the Dutch police, the NCA helped to track Quinn down in the Netherlands where he was arrested.
“His capture should serve as a warning to other fugitives on the NCA’s most wanted list – the NCA has international reach and even if you leave the UK we can still get to you. We are relentless and we will not stop in our work to track you down.”