Drug importing granddad dubbed 'Catch Me If You Can' criminal was on the run for 17 years

A grandfather who evaded the police for 17 years using a series of fake passports, while living a life of luxury and paying for it by directing the trafficking of cocaine and cannabis around the UK, has been jailed.

Using the encrypted messaging service Encrochat, which was later cracked by police, Joseph Morley moved wholesale quantities of drugs around the UK under the online moniker "Indelible Osprey", while on the run from British justice. But after the best part of two decades, he was arrested in 2023 during a police sting in Liverpool.

The Liverpool Echo reports that Morley, sometimes described as a 'Catch Me If You Can' drug trafficker, evaded police and, enjoyed cruises, and jetted off to France, Italy, Spain and Portugal - all while he was meant to be serving a prison sentence. It came after he was locked up for 15 years in 1995 over a plot to smuggle heroin and cocaine into the UK through Manchester Airport.

Join our WhatsApp Top Stories and Breaking News group by clicking this link.

He had acted as the "banker" for a gang whose scheming involved dummy runs and the use of false names, addresses and passports, with police having seized £6,000 in cash when they raided his then home on Lydiate Park in Thornton.

Then, in May 2000, Morley failed to return to HMP Kirkham in Lancashire after being allowed out on day release. He only had 20 months of his sentence left to serve at the time.

Matthew Conway, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court four years ago that, the month after he had absconded, Morley had obtained a British passport in his birth name of Joseph Williams. In October 2003, he then applied for another passport - this time under the guise of Joseph James Cowling from London - which he obtained using