Drug kingpin sent drug mule 'dressed as a dapper commuter' to avoid being caught

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A county lines "kingpin" had one of his drug mules dress a dapper commuter going to work to avoid being caught. Shaun Doyle, 27, was the head of a Merseyside organised crime ring which supplied heroin and crack cocaine to users during a seven-month period in 2019 and early 2020.

Doyle came to the attention of police in August 2019 when he was found with £12,000 worth of crack cocaine inside his trousers while he was in the passenger seat of a rental car. READ MORE: Homeless man snuck onto plane at Manchester Airport to 'smoke a cig and drink beer' then jumped off before it left The ECHO reports that as detectives dismantled the conspiracy, they learned Doyle was in control of a “drug line” phone from which “text flares” were sent to advertise the availability of heroin and crack cocaine to multiple users at a time.

At Carlisle Crown Court on Thursday, January 27, prosecutor Julian Goode said: “Drug users would then contact the number and be redirected to a particular location where a street dealer would hand them the drugs in exchange for money." Get the latest updates from across Greater Manchester direct to your inbox with the free MEN newsletter You can sign up very simply by following the instructions here Acting as those street dealers were three West Cumbria residents — James Postlethwaite, 46, and Karen Pullin, 37, both of Senhouse Street, Maryport; along with 38-year-old Paula Jackson, of Co-Operative Terrace, Flimby.

Above them in the criminal chain of command was Doyle’s trusted right hand man Jacob Hughes-O’Brien, 27, of Altfinch Close, Stockbridge Village, who was caught by police with £40,000 worth of illicit substances at a Harrington safe house in November, 2019; and courier Thomas Jameson, 29, of