BBC News
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image copyrightPolice handout
image captionAlan and John Tobin led a lavish lifestyle before their drugs empire was toppled, police said
Two drug-dealing brothers at the centre of a record £20m cocaine haul seized by police have been jailed.
The 2019 operation on the M6 motorway in Cheshire was the biggest ever UK land-based cocaine seizure at the time.
Police found ringleaders Alan and John Tobin, aged 52 and 40, were the brains behind sending the drugs to two Warrington-based drug gangs.
Alan was jailed for 20 years while his brother was sentenced to 19 years and eight months at Liverpool Crown Court.
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By Adam Everett
- Members of a major drugs gang are set to be sentenced this morning
- The ring was led by the Tobin brothers, who sat at the ‘very top of the chain’ in the supply of class A substances
- Their organised crime group sold cocaine to the notorious Cullen gang and ordered a £20million shipment be trafficked across the country to Warrington
- The defendants falling to be sentenced are:
• Alan Tobin, aged 51, of Regency Park in Widnes
• John Tobin, aged 40, of no fixed address
• Robbie Broughton, aged 38, of Breccia Gardens in St Helens
• Simon Leech, aged 29, of Brindley Avenue in Latchford, Warrington
Updated
Clockwise from top left; Alan Tobin, John Tobin, Brian McQuillan, Robbie Broughton and Simon Leech MEMBERS of a major drugs ring which supplied cocaine to the notorious Cullen gang have been jailed for a combined total of more than 60 years. The Tobin brothers’ organised crime group also ordered a £20million shipment of the class A drug be trafficked across the country.
The £20million shipment of drugs Their organised crime group was taken down by Cheshire Police’s Operation Kings after a series of raids in Warrington, St Helens and Widnes in September last year. Today, Tuesday, the pair and three co-conspirators were locked up at Liverpool Crown Court.
By Adam Everett
- Members of a major drugs gang are set to be sentenced this morning
- The ring was led by the Tobin brothers, who sat at the ‘very top of the chain’ in the supply of class A substances
- Their organised crime group sold cocaine to the notorious Cullen gang and ordered a £20million shipment be trafficked across the country to Warrington
- The defendants falling to be sentenced are:
• Alan Tobin, aged 51, of Regency Park in Widnes
• John Tobin, aged 40, of no fixed address
• Robbie Broughton, aged 38, of Breccia Gardens in St Helens
• Simon Leech, aged 29, of Brindley Avenue in Latchford, Warrington