'Gangster granny' hid cocaine on kitchen baking tray and sold drugs to pay off debts

dailystar.co.uk:

Facebook hid a secret double life as a drug dealer.Maureen Thompson, 61, stashed drugs in her kitchen and kept a list of users who owed money after she agreed to work for her dealer in order to pay off her own debts.The mother of one began using cocaine after she was forced to quit booking motorists due to an injury.Police raided her apartment in Scholes, near Wigan, Greater Manchester on February 12, 2020, following a tip-off.Officers found a total of 47 wraps of cocaine - some hidden in a sock in a plastic box and also a white bin-bag containing 383 grams of cutting agents used to bulk up the drugs.Thompson's mobile was also examined and found to contain messages relating to drug sales.

The debtors 'tick list" was found in a notebook and she was also put in charge of manning a drug-deal hotline. Experts valued the haul at up to £1335.Thompson initially denied being a drug dealer and claimed not to have known where the drugs came from.

But in the police station, she was found to be wearing a sock which was a match to the other which contained drugs.In a subsequent statement, she confessed: "I was in substantial debt to a drug dealer and I could not pay those debts so I agreed to let the dealer use my account to deposit and withdraw drugs money."My debt continued to incur interest and I agreed to store drugs and operate a drugs phone for him.