Stockton house search revealed drugs factory (From The Northern Echo)

Stockton house search revealed drugs factory

9:39am Saturday 6th February 2010 in

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A GANG of cocaine and heroin dealers who set up a drugs factory in a house next to a primary school have been jailed.

One of the operation’s kingpins, Simon Bennett, 23, had money in his fridge when officers searched his upmarket riverside flat at Water Avens Way, Stockton. A jet ski and jewellery were also found.

His main accomplice, Graham Thomas Lindo, 21, launched a foul-mouthed tirade at the judge at Teesside Crown Court yesterday when the pair were given seven-year jail terms for conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine.

The men used a house rented by Karl Jones, 30, and his wife, Helen Jones, 28, at Suffolk Street, Stockton, to process and wrap the drugs.

Dealers and runners were employed to sell the drugs, often in view of children going to and from Oxbridge Lane Primary School.

Undercover officers raided the house in May last year and arrested eight people.

Prosecutor Harry Hadfield said: “Some of the defendants supplied at street level, some prepared deals, some acted as lookouts and some answered the phones.”

When Lindo, of Dover Road, Stockton, was sentenced, he shouted “Seven years – you’re having a f****** laugh” and was restrained as he was taken to the cells.

Of the remaining defendants, Simon Bennett’s younger brother, Christopher, 19, of Chadderton Drive, Thornaby, was jailed for two years for conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Karl Jones was jailed for five years for conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin, while Helen Jones, also of Chapel Street, Evenwood, County Durham, was given a suspended prison sentence for the same offence.

Francis Anthony Moir, 21, of Douglas Walk, Stockton, was jailed for four years for conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin.

Andrew David Allcock, 46, of Twelfth Street, Peterlee, and his son Daniel Allcock, 18, of Whickham Road, Stockton, were both involved in conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin. Allcock Sr was jailed for six-and-a-half years, while his son was ordered to complete 240 hours of community service.

All those involved pleaded guilty.

The judge, Recorder William Lowe, said: “These drugs are a scourge.”

Paul Abrahams, mitigating for Lindo, said he started dealing drugs because he could not find a job.

Nigel Soppitt, for Simon Bennett, said he became involved because he had a cannabis habit and owed dealers money.