Andrew Ross, of Hawarden, Flintshire, admitted conspiring to smuggle cocaine

One of the leaders of a drugs gang now serving a 10-year jail sentence made £1.4m smuggling cocaine into north Wales, a court heard.

Andrew Ross, of Hawarden, Flintshire, admitted conspiring to smuggle cocaine at Mold Crown Court in 2009.

Following an investigation into his assets, Ross will have £20,000 seized under proceeds of crime laws, a judge at Mold decided on Monday.

The rest of the money can be pursued if Ross comes into funds in future.

A second member of the gang, who made £620,000, was given a confiscation order for £1,689.

Keiran Foulkes, of Halkyn, Flintshire, had previously been sentenced to 18 months after admitting being involved in supplying cocaine.

Again, the rest of the money can also be pursued in future.

Nine members of the gang were jailed in September 2009 for a total of more than 44 years.

The court was told that Ross, helped by others, organised the distribution of cocaine.

Drugs went from Rhyl, Denbighshire, to Anglesey and also into Flintshire, where they were further diluted at a house in Halkyn.

Telephone records
Ross was said to be one of the driving forces behind the conspiracy.

Police kept watch over many months, and officers produced telephone records which showed contact between defendants at crucial times.

The financial hearing under The Proceeds of Crime Act was told that Ross made £1.4m from drugs supply.

The confiscation order to the value of £20,325 was based on items police seized during the investigation.

He was given six months to pay or serve an additional 14 months in default.

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Curtis "Cocky" Warren was a global criminal, who made his mark on Jersey when he tried to bring £1 million of cannabis into the island.

Curtis "Cocky" Warren was a global criminal, who made his mark on Jersey when he tried to bring £1 million of cannabis into the island.

Once Interpol's Most Wanted man and a notorious gangster who once made the Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune of £40 million, it was a huge coup when Jersey Police nabbed him.

But after it emerged that police had used illegal means to get that conviction, they faced losing their prize catch.

Warren saw a chance to break free from his 13 year sentence. But now the 47-year-old's appeal, which he marched right into the highest court in the British Isles, has been dismissed, and he will serve out his long sentence behind bars.

In 2009, Warren and five associates were unanimously convicted of planning to buy cannabis worth £1 million in Amsterdam, take it by car to Normandy, and smuggle it to Jersey by boat.

If Warren and his gang had succeeded, they would have taken a major chunk of the island's illegal drug market and earned enough money to finance further shipments.

The grounds of Warren's appeal lay in the actions of Jersey police - who he says illegally bugged a car in order to gain evidence.

At his trial in 2009, the jury heard one bugged conversation in which Warren described the scheme as 'just a little starter'.

Warren claimed that Jersey police broke the law by bugging a car in France, Belgium and Holland, without permission from the European authorities.

What was never in question was that Warren has been a lifetime criminal - spending his life since he was 12 in and out of prison.

His criminal past can be traced back to his childhood, when he stole a car aged 12. He spent three months in a detention centre when he was 15 and received his first jail sentence in 1982 when he was imprisioned for two years for attacking a prostitute and her client.

After his release he became a bouncer, and it is believed it is this role that allowed him to become involved in the drugs trade.

By the time he was 20, he was dealing in drugs. A year later, he was jailed for five years for armed robbery.

After being released he headed back into the drugs world. He used his intelligence - he has a photographic memory - to store contacts' numbers in his head.

But in 1996 he and several associates were arrested after Dutch SWAT police raided Warren's villa and found guns, cocaine and canabis estimated to be worth an incredible £125 million.

While in prison, he killed a fellow prisoner in a fight and was later charged with manslaughter and sentenced to four years.

Warren is currently held in the high security wing of London's Belmarsh prison, where he will now serve out the rest of his sentence.
And it looks like it is not just his freedom he has lost. Police have reiterated that they plan to claim back any assets he has - believed to be a substantial fortune.

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Posted in: Warren saw a chance to break free from his 13 year sentence

Hunt for missing Sian O'Callaghan turns into double murder

The discovery came six days after Miss O'Callaghan, 22, was last seen alive leaving a club. Police said they believed they had found her body close to the Uffington White Horse beauty spot in Oxfordshire. In an extraordinary twist, officers then said they had been told about a second as yet unidentified body, which they have yet to find.
The man arrested is believed to be 47– year–old Chris Halliwell, a taxi driver. The suspect is being held on suspicion of kidnap and double murder.
Det Supt Steve Fulcher, who is leading the inquiry, said: "A 47–year–old man from Swindon is in custody, having been arrested for kidnap and two murders.
"The location of two bodies have been identified to me by this individual, one of whom has yet to be identified formally, but I am quite clear is Sian." Mr Fulcher added that Miss O'Callaghan's parents Mick, 51, and Elaine, 48, had been told about the discovery and were deeply distressed.
However, the detective would not be drawn on the identity – or even the gender – of the other body. Reports last night claimed it was that of an unnamed woman killed in 2001.

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Posted in: Hunt for missing Sian O'Callaghan turns into double murder

Sian O'Callaghan, arrested a man on suspicion of murder been told the location of two bodies.

Hopes of finding the missing personal assistant Sian O'Callaghan alive were dashed last night as police announced that they had arrested a man on suspicion of murder and had been told the location of two bodies.

After a dramatic day in which officers swooped on a local taxi driver outside a supermarket, Wiltshire Police revealed that they had arrested a 47-year-old man on two counts of murder and one count of kidnap. Detectives confirmed they had a found a body thought to be Sian's, although she had not yet been formally identified.

Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher made the announcement at a sombre press conference yesterday evening. Earlier in the day police had expressed hope that they would still find the 22-year-old alive, but instead they are now confronting a double murder inquiry.

"A 47-year-old man from Swindon is in custody, having been arrested for kidnap and two murders," Mr Fulcher said. "The location of two bodies has been identified to me by this individual, one of whom has yet to be identified formally, but I am quite clear is Sian.

"I have informed Sian's family, who are obviously deeply distressed, and I would ask you please to give them time and space to come to terms with what's happened."

It is believed that a body was found near the village of Uffington, the location of a prehistoric white horse hillside carving. The other, unidentified body has not yet been found. The arrest at 11am yesterday came just hours after detectives put out a fresh appeal to locate a green Toyota Avensis estate with taxi markings that was seen near the Savernake Forest at the time of Sian's disappearance.

She was last seen leaving a Swindon nightclub in the early hours of Saturday morning. Mobile phone records placed her in the forest 34 minutes after leaving Suju nightclub, leading police to conclude that she must have been driven there.

Police arrested the taxi driver at the front entrance of an Asda supermarket at the Orbital shopping centre in north Swindon. Witnesses said officers ran towards a green Toyota estate which was parked in a taxi rank outside the supermarket and bundled the man into the back of an unmarked police car. Later in the day forensics officers searched a semi-detached property on Ashbury Avenue in the Nythe area of Swindon, erecting a white tent in front of a garage. A second forensics tent went up in a ditch just south of Uffington. Neighbours named the man as Chris Halliwell, who was divorced and lived on his own.

Mr Fulcher praised the public and the media response to Sian's disappearance, but urged reporters to give his officers time to formally identify the victims and inform their families.

"The public and the media have been a fantastic help in the desperate effort to find Sian over the last few days," he said. "This has of course been a fast-paced inquiry. Having found these bodies, you will appreciate that I am under extreme pressure to undertake certain actions and procedures, and I would ask you to give me some time to enable me to recover these bodies, with the dignity and respect that they deserve."

Earlier, Sian's family had issued a statement thanking the public for their support.

"The sheer numbers of people who have given up their time to help search for Sian and distribute appeal posters are overwhelming and we couldn't ask for better support from the public, police and media," the statement read. "This is an extremely difficult time for us and we continue to hope and pray that our beautiful girl is found soon." On Monday, Sian's boyfriend, Kevin Reape, had issued a tearful plea. "We all want to know where Sian is and we want her home safe and well," he said.

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Posted in: arrested a man on suspicion of murder and had been told the location of two bodies.