A high-ranking member of an organised crime group that trafficked heroin and cocaine has been convicted after he was extradited from Portugal.Stephen Earle of Huyton, Merseyside, was arrested by local Police in Faro in January this year after a tip off by the National Crime Agency.
The 52-year-old was returned to the UK on March 18.Earle worked closely with his cousin Terence Earle, 50, who was jailed for 16-and-a-half years in April last year.
The pair shipped at least 10 kilos of heroin and seven kilos of cocaine between Merseyside and Motherwell.They used the encrypted communications platform EncroChat to run the criminal enterprise, with the help of Stanley Feerick, 70, and Stephen King, 50.
Both men have also been sentenced for their part in the class A operation and the creation of an amphetamine lab in Scotland.
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