Wigan gang that dealt millions of pounds of cocaine out of a former church jailed for 60 years

Its eight members bought and sold large quantities of the class A drug and flooded the country’s streets with it, Manchester Crown Court heard.

The dealers used the ex-church in Bamfurlong, which was more recently an antiques shop belonging to family of two of the offenders, as a drug warehouse where cocaine was packaged before farming out to addicts.

But the drugs ring collasped after a law enforcement hack of the EncroChat communications network in June 2020, which led to a series of arrests and house searches.

The hearing was told officers found designer clothing, expensive watches and numerous phones.

And messages from the EncroChat hack handed over to Greater Manchester Police showed in great detail some of the gang’s workings, including the adulteration of drugs to make them go further and maximise profits.

There were also details of transactions, some of them five-figure, and a debtors’ list plus the suggestion that customers would receive a visit if they didn’t keep up with payments.

It was said that the group dealt more than 75kg of cocaine which was bought in bulk for between £2.7m and £3.2m and sold on the streets for between £7m and £7.5m.

Sent down were Dean Smallwood, 42, of Land Gate Lane, Bryn; Jamie Kenny, 32, of Ashwood Avenue, Abram; Leon Kenny, 31, of Warrington Road in Abram; Nathan Cooke, 31, of Eskdale Road, Hindley; Sam Causer, 32, of Egerton Street, Abram; Nathan Hart, 32, of Warrington Road, Abram; Ian Ormshaw, 42, of Mesnes Avenue, Wigan and Daryl Golding, 36, of Brookland Avenue, Hindley.