Darren Schofield’s organised crime group hated a plot to smuggle £140million of cocaine in the UK from Sierra Leone
Darren Schofield(Image: National Crime Agency)
A drug importer known as “Thor” netted nearly £5million as his gang carried out their shady dealings in the car park of a Beefeater pub and outside a GP practice. Darren Schofield led an organised crime group (OCG) which hatched a plot to smuggle £140million of cocaine into the UK from Sierra Leone.
Their huge stash of illicit class A substances was hidden inside a shipment of flour which was transported from West Africa by boat before its seizure at the border. Members of the criminal syndicate, including a former champion boxer, were previously locked up for more than 80 years.
Schofield’s case was brought back before Liverpool Crown Court this week for a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Tom Challinor, prosecuting, detailed how the 45-year-old, of St Phillip’s Avenue in Litherland, benefitted to the tune of £4,845,409 from his involvement in the criminal underworld.
However, he was only said to have available assets totalling £155,930.26 at present. Judge Brian Cummings KC therefore made a forfeiture order in this sum on Monday, although law enforcement authorities will be able to seize monies to the higher value from him in the future.
Schofield will be required to hand over this sum within three months or face an additional year in prison in default, in which case he would still be obliged to pay up. His co-conspirators will face their own POCA proceedings later this year, at which stage a judge will also decide whether to impose serious crime prevention orders on all of the OCG members.
The same court previously heard in December last year that the National Crime Agency launched Operation Lemonlike after 1.3 tonnes of cocaine, worth £36million at wholesale level but with a street value of as much as £140million, was seized at the Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk. The 1,306kg of class A drugs had been concealed with a shipment of 20kg sacks of garri flour which had arrived from the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown on June 8, 2022 and was bound for an industrial unit at Bradley Hall Trading Estate in Standish, Wigan, via a stop in Morocco.
Martin Reid KC, appearing for the prosecution on this occasion, described Schofield as a “a leading member of a Merseyside-based crime group” and “responsible for the overall coordination of the importation”, which was foiled when the huge consignment was intercepted by the UK Border Force. He was nicknamed “Thor” by his fellow gang members, apparently owing to his long locks.
Stephen Martland, of Lakeland Gardens in Chorley, arranged for the rental of the premises where the drugs were to be delivered and was also involved in sourcing chemicals which would enable the illicit substances to be cut in order to boost profits. Paul Mockett, aged 50 and of Stump Lane in Chorley, set up a registered company, BH Supplies Ltd, to facilitate the purchase of these adulterants.
Stephen Martland(Image: National Crime Agency)
The investigation also led to Neil Maguire, of Georgia Close in Bootle, being identified as the user of the handle “Holy Book” on encrypted communications platform EncroChat. He was involved in trading 8.5kg of cocaine, worth around £300,000, via the network alongside contacts such as “Mister Gratitude”, “Frosty Mallet”, “Good Vibes.com” and “Stringfella” – which was said to have been Schofield’s account.
Surveillance meanwhile showed that both the 45-year-old and 46-year-old Paul O’Shea, of Edge Lane in Crosby, were involved in several handovers of cocaine. David Jones was found in possession of around a kilogram of a cutting agent when arrested alongside Schofield during the NCA operation, while Darren Wetton, also 56 and of Ashby Street in Chorley, confessed to having couriered quantities of cannabis to Norfolk and Scotland.
‘Too much to lose, we’re so close to big bucks’
The court heard of an email which was sent to the firm responsible for letting out the industrial unit in March 2022, in which the defendants claimed that they intended to use the premises “for the storage of house clearances” and returned goods from Amazon and Argos. A sum of £3,600 would subsequently be paid into Martland’s bank account in the days after the lease was agreed, with this figure being the same as the cost of hiring the site.
Mr Reid detailed how he had messaged Schofield in March 2022 as they arranged the lease of the industrial unit in question, telling him: “I’m in with the big boys. They have my trust up to now. Don’t want to spoil it, too much to lose. We’re so close to big bucks.”
Mockett expressed some concerns over their plans however, telling Martland that it would be himself who would “get a knock on the door if anything went wrong”. Two days later, the latter spoke of “the man in Spain wanting to speak today to sort things” and told Schofield in another message: “They want everything to be 100 per cent, or they will run.”
Paul Mockett(Image: National Crime Agency)
The following month, a man identifying himself as “Paul Jhones” – an apparent pseudonym – contacted a company called Yadco Foods offering his services for the importation gari flour, cassava flour and palm oil. This led to the business placing an order for 1,000 20kg bags of the former product.
Two shipping containers were then loaded onto the vessel JPO Gemini on May 6 under the guise of this deal. They would be unloaded at the Port of Tangier on May 30 before arriving in this country a further eight days later.
However, one of these containers was then held within the port as it supposedly required fumigation after being “contaminated with insects”. The other, said to be a “clean container” of flour, was delivered to the industrial estate on July 29.
Then, on August 17, the UK Border Force conducted a search of the second container and recovered its illegal contents. But Martland continued to source temporary labour in order to unload the cargo, still anticipating its arrival.
Both his and Mockett’s phones were used to contact recruitment agencies before one, Adecco, informed an email address under the Paul Jhones name that they could provide workers for the job. These members of staff were initially used to remove sacks of flour from the first delivery into a skip on August 31 and September 1 prior to the arrival of the container holding the “cover load”.
The shipment ultimately arrived on a lorry on the afternoon of the latter date, with an undercover law enforcement officer completing the delivery. However, the goods ultimately could not be unloaded due to an issue with a forklift truck and the HGV was taken away again as a result.
Mr Reid said that the conspirators then appeared to “realise that things had gone seriously wrong”, with Mockett messaging Martland, who turned 70 on the day of his sentencing, stating that he “had to smash his phone up” as it was “the only link to that job”. Both men would ultimately be arrested on November 29.
When Schofield’s then home on School Drive in Halewood was searched in September 2023, documentation revealed that he also controlled a property on Melrose Road in Kirkdale which was used for the mixing of drugs. Officers recovered noxious chemicals and large amounts of equipment including cookers, moulds, stamps and a press from this address.
Handovers of drugs and cash in pub car park and at GP practice
Schofield was also linked to a series of meetings with Jones and O’Shea, as well as other unknown conspirators, throughout the course of several months in 2023 as cocaine and money changed hands. One, on March 8, saw him attend a garage with an unidentified male.
Maguire then visited the same premises with the same man before driving off with a yellow sports bag which appeared to contain a parcel. They then travelled to the Stag and Rainbow, a Beefeater pub in the West Derby area of Queens Drive, where another man leant into the passenger’s side of the vehicle and removed the bag, which supposedly contained half a kilogram of cocaine.
Neil Maguire(Image: National Crime Agency)
He and Schofield then met on April 28, with Maguire subsequently meeting with O’Shea before travelling onwards to Norton Street in Bootle and removing a number of bin bags, plastic tubs and tins from the rear of a Ford Transit van and taking them into an address. A search of this address later revealed a large quantity of chemicals in tins and tubs similar to those seen during the surveillance operation.
Maguire thereafter attended a house on Stanley Road in Bootle on May 11 and was seen carrying a bin bag back to his Renault van. He claimed that this contained 1kg of cocaine.
On June 29, he was observed exiting his van on Hornspit Lane in West Derby with a bag for life and walking towards a nearby medical centre. Maguire then returned to his vehicle without the bag, which he stated contained a quantity of cash, seconds later.
Then, on July 3, O’Shea was seen removing a yellow JD Sports bag from the rear of a Seat Leon parked outside D&S O’Shea garage in Crosby before entering Coronation Park. Less than 10 minutes later, the 46-year-old was seen crossing Liverpool Road then entering the driveway of an address on Queen Road without the bag.
Within the hour, he exited the same garage and “rummaged around” in the rear of the same car before walking in the direction of the park carrying a One Stop bag “containing a bulky item”. O’Shea, who was known as “Doc”, then entered a different Seat Leon and left the bag inside.
Paul O’Shea(Image: National Crime Agency)
This vehicle was subsequently stopped on Norton Street, with 999g of cocaine being recovered from inside a white plastic bag. The NCA later recovered messages from the app Signal from this date, with Schofield, using the account “Gordon Gekko”, the name of the main character of the 1987 film Wall Street, telling a contact: “Need two jobs dropping, quick 200 for ya. Have you spoke to Doc about collecting? He said if he’s not done in the hour he’s going elsewhere.”
His associate then replied “it’s sorted lad, going to see Doc now”. Schofield subsequently reported “another lad after one” before the seizure of the near kilo of drugs.
Finally, on July 5, O’Shea approached Maguire’s parked van on Enfield Avenue in Crosby and left a black drawstring bag in the passenger’s side. The vehicle then continued onwards to Georgia Close in Bootle, where the driver was seen dropping the bag, which he says contained a kilo of cocaine, at a block of flats before entering his own house on the same street.
Gang members moaned new member ‘didn’t have a f***ing clue’ in ‘Lads’ WhatsApp group
Jones’ arrest came after he was observed being collected from his home address on Fountains Close in Kirkdale by Schofield on September 26, 2023, after which the two men visited a B&M store and Home Bargains. The 56-year-old was seen exiting the latter shop “carrying a small item” but dropped his receipt as he did so, showing that he had purchased a set of kitchen scales from the shop.
After returning to his flat, Jones was seen interacting with the occupants of a white van while Schofield sat on a nearby bench. He then entered his co-defendant’s car before getting out of the vehicle carrying a package which he placed into his boot.
David Jones(Image: National Crime Agency)
Officers swooped to arrest both men at this stage. The parcel, wrapped in brown paper, was subsequently found to contain nearly 1kg of Tetramisole, a common cutting agent for cocaine.
The NCA later recovered a series of messages from a WhatsApp group chat entitled “LADS” when they seized Schofield’s phone. During the exchange, there was “expressed frustration about the scales and Jones’ perceived inexperience”.
Referring to him as “Savage”, Schofield said: “Joke this. He’s not got scales or nothing. Tbh I’m getting to the point I cba grafting no more. This Savage, he’s just brand new and hasn’t got a f***ing clue.”
Another group chat participant then replied: “Lar, this isn’t my responsibility. I’ve made it as easy as I possibly can. I’ve labelled them, told him what vac bag to use and told him he can message or ring me if he’s not sure. Don’t know what more you want me to do. If he’d have messaged me last night, I could have popped past with some scales.”
Following the trip to Home Bargains, Schofield reported: “I have gone and got them. He’s doing it out the back of the vehicle now.”
Schofield admitted conspiracy to import cocaine. Appearing via video link to HMP Manchester, he was jailed for 20 years. This sentence was reduced from 30 years to take account of his guilty plea.
Martland, who appeared for his sentencing on the day he turned 70, was convicted of the same offence after trial, while Mockett pleaded guilty to the charge. Appearing remotely from HMP Liverpool and HMP Preston, they were imprisoned for 21 and 13-and-a-half years respectively.
Maguire admitted two counts of conspiracy to supply cocaine and was handed 11 years and four months. O’Shea pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and was given six years.
Jones, also appearing on the link from Walton prison, admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine and was sentenced to three-and-a-half years. Wetton pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cannabis and received a 12-month imprisonment suspended for 18 months, having made admissions to couriering cannabis to East Anglia and north of the border during his trial while accused of involvement in the supply of class A drugs, which he was ultimately cleared of by a jury.
He stated on the witness box that, on March 30 2022, he had taken a “couple of Asda bags of cannabis” to Norwich and said that a journey to Glasgow on April 1 related to the same activity. Then, on April 12, he said that he was “asked to allow someone to put cannabis in his van to be picked up later”.
Wetton reported that he carried out the cross country trips in order to get his own cannabis “for free”, having used a “half ounce every couple of weeks or so”. Two Pringles tubes containing quantities of the class B drug were later recovered when his home was searched in November 2022.
Darren Wetton(Image: National Crime Agency)Champion boxer put pub brawl behind him but was unmasked as ‘Cherry Vape’
The court then heard in April this year that former professional boxer and British Masters light heavyweight champion Carl “Dynamite” Dilks, from Netherton, was identified as an EncroChat contact of Schofield and Maguire, having been unmasked as the user of the handle “Cherry Vape”. He was said to have worked as a “commodities broker” in the supply of drugs alongside the gang leader while directing the latter to collect and deliver cocaine and cash.
Messages showed his involvement in discussions to supply at least 8kg of cocaine with the likes of “Golden Lad”, “Phone Fixer” and “Five Fingers”, leading to his arrest at his home address on Netherton Green on November 29, 2023. Alex Langhorn, representing the crown during his sentencing hearing, added: “The crown say that he was his own man, operating his own deals as and when he chose.”
Carl Dilks(Image: Merseyside Police)
Prior to his fighting career, “talented footballer” Dilks joined the army aged 17 and went on to serve in Iraq. The Network Rail employee was also said to have volunteered his time in coaching boxing clubs and raising money for community football teams.
His latest brush with the law dwarfed his previous offending, with the ECHO having previously reported that he was handed a suspended prison sentence in 2009 after chasing two men into a Liverpool city centre pub and “knocking them senseless”. This came just two months after he received his British Masters crown.
Dilks’ sole conviction before this had been for an offence of drink driving. He admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and was jailed for eight years and eight months.