Five awaiting sentence after police seize cocaine worth £20 million

FIVE men are awaiting sentence next month after pleading guilty to a drugs conspiracy which led to police seizing cocaine worth £20 million.
The five include two brothers who were the main uppliers of drugs to two well-known gangs in Warrington.
A total of 186kg of cocaine was seized by police in Cheshire.
Alan Tobin , 51, and John Tobin, 40, were supplying huge amounts of cocaine to organised crime gangs run by Anthony Cullen, 33,and 30-year-old Jamie Oldroyd.
They also instructed Jamie Simpson, 33, to deliver £20million of cocaine on their behalf from Kent to Warrington.
John Tobin’s DNA was found on the bubble wrap of one of the drug blocks he watched being placed into boxes during the packing process – and this was crucial in connecting him to the conspiracy.
Detectives from the Serious and Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) seized the drugs on the M6 motorway on August 2 in 2018 during an operation in which Simpson had been under surveillance.
The brothers also sold cannabis, heroin, ketamine and cocaine to other gangs in Scotland, London, North Wales, Cornwall, West Yorkshire, Cumbria, Manchester and Humberside.
While Alan and John were in command of the criminal enterprise, they required the assistance of Robbie Broughton, Simon Leech and Brian McQuillan to do the day-to-day running of their business.
In order to distance themselves from having links to organised crime, they recruited 29-year-old Leech to act as a conduit, to minimise any direct contact made to them.
Broughton’s role, predominantly, was to collect cash from the organised crime leaders who had been supplied drugs by the Tobins. However, the 38-year-old also enforced debts and made threats on their behalf and informed the brothers of problems that were arising.
Their large-scale operation meant 51-year-old McQuillan was responsible for couriering large amounts of cash across the United Kingdom.
The pair were ultimately running a smooth, and successfully profitable, criminal organisation until detectives from SOCU began three operations into their customers from 2016 to 2018. This involved targeting Lee Stoba, aged 47, Anthony Cullen and Jamie Oldroyd – codenamed Operation Bullfight, Operation Samurai and Operation Dreadnought respectively.
During the course of the operation detectives witnessed John Tobin meeting with Cullen, Broughton and Robert Bibby at a countryside café, where they discussed the supply of drugs.
Alan Tobin was also observed meeting with Jamie Oldroyd and Jamie Simpson at a café in Warrington to talk over the onward supply of class A drugs to organised crime gangs in Carlisle, Liverpool, Scunthorpe and Sussex.
The operations led to large amounts of drugs and money being seized by police and resulted in debts owed to the Tobin brothers that were too big for the day-to-day employees to deal with.
This led to the Tobins having to become more hands on and, on one occasion, Alan was seen meeting with Cullen at a pub car park in Warrington where a heated argument took place between them.
Their criminality drew to a close on Wednesday September 9 last year after detectives raided properties in Widnes, Warrington and St Helens. All of the men were arrested and subsequently charged.
Detective Chief Inspector Mike Evans, from the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said: “Taking down the mainstream supplier of drugs to three big organised crime groups operating in Warrington was the final piece of the jigsaw.
“The brothers sat at the very top of the chain. They were provided with greater protection to prevent them from being identified as leaders of the organised crime group. At first they sat back and reaped the rewards of their criminality by displaying a lavish lifestyle while employing Broughton, Leech and McQuillan to run the business.
“For a while their criminal enterprise was seen to be getting bigger and bigger until we began running a number of operations on the gangs they were supplying drugs to.
“Once we started seizing large quantities of drugs and cash, problems arose and the Tobin’s soon began to surface, as huge debts were owed. The colossal seizure of 186kg of cocaine saw their reputation ruined.
“The investigation team has worked relentlessly to collate evidence that shows the brothers’ involvement in these conspiracies over a period of up to nine years. Their hard work and determination has paid dividends and resulted in five guilty pleas and justice finally catching up with them all.”
Alan Tobin, aged 51, previously of Regency Park in Widnes has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, conspiracy to supply cannabis, conspiracy to supply heroin and conspiracy to supply ketamine.
John Tobin, aged 40, of no fixed address, has pleadedguilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, conspiracy to supply cannabis, conspiracy to supply heroin and conspiracy to supply ketamine.
Robbie Broughton, aged 38, of Breccia Gardens in St Helens pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, conspiracy to supply cannabis and conspiracy to supply ketamine
Brian McQuillan, aged 51, of Buttermarket Street in Warrington pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine
Simon Leech, aged 29 of Brindley Avenue in Warrington pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine.
All are due to be sentenced in April.