Convicted dealer ran family drug firm from jail using a smuggled mobile phone

The four cannabis dealers were responsible for the wholesale production and widespread distribution of the drug across Tameside

A family crime gang organised by a convicted drug dealer from his prison cell have been brought to justice.

The four cannabis dealers - a husband and wife and another couple related to them - were responsible for the wholesale production and widespread distribution of the drug across Tameside, the Manchester Evening News reports .

The gang was headed by jailed Lee Burgess, 26, who used a mobile phone that was smuggled inside Risley Prison in Warrington to arrange deals and continue to organise the ‘family business’.

His older brother Peter Burgess, 30, took calls and instructions from his sibling and kept cash, cannabis and high-purity cocaine at his house.

Brogan Dean, Lee Burgess’s partner, would collect cash from street deals for the brothers and Peter Burgess’s wife, Sophie Burgess, was involved in production.

All four were snared and convicted after a major operation by Tameside Police’s specialist organised crime team.

Police said they drove ‘flash cars’ and enjoyed the ‘wealth of criminality’ - but have now been ‘brought down a peg or two’.

His wife Sophie, 26, admitted drugs offences and allowing her property to be used to produce cannabis and Dean, 21, from Denton, pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply cannabis, possession of cannabis and possessing criminal property.

Both got suspended sentences and unpaid work.

Officers who swooped on Dean’s home in January last year found drugs paraphernalia and bundles of cash totalling £37,000 in the loft.

Two months later, police raided Peter Burgess’ home and discovered the remains of a loft cannabis farm and high purity cocaine.

Det Con Joe Harrop, from the Tameside Organised Crime Team, said the ‘lucrative operation’ was conducted by a ‘true family firm’.

He said: “It must be galling for people to see drug dealers like this who can’t be bothered to find honest work driving around in flash cars and enjoying the wealth criminality can bring so it’s a victory for our communities to see these people brought down a peg or two.

"Unlike the vast majority of people who work for a living, these four simply wanted to line their own pockets producing and peddling drugs and I am delighted this operation has been exposed and they have been punished for their criminal behaviour.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/convicted-dealer-ran-family-drug-4506269 25/10/2014