From Windermere, via Wigan, to the cartels of Dubai - how detectives smashed international drugs ring

It began with a tip-off in a Lake District town better known for its boat trips and hiking. Detectives had got wind of a drug dealer in Bowness-on-Windermere said to be selling some fairly serious amounts of cocaine.

Reece Barnes, 31, was taking delivery of around a kilo of the Class A drug a month. And in a small town like Windermere, that was enough to attract attention.

Described in court as a 'regional retailer', he would stash the drugs in a Lakes lock-up before distributing them to his own network of street dealers across Cumbria. He was a decent-sized player to take off the streets.

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But once detectives began putting him under surveillance they realised Barnes presented them with an opportunity to go even higher up the food chain.

What they uncovered led to Cumbria's biggest ever drugs bust and took officers from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU) from Windermere - via Wigan - to the international drugs cartels of Dubai and Portugal.

Over a 15 month-long operation from March, 2022, to May last year, detectives unearthed an enormous drug dealing network which saw up to £53m-worth of cocaine trafficked throughout the UK.

Undercover cops struck their first significant blow on February 4, 2023, when they watched courier Cain Turner hand over a kilo of coke to Barnes in Windermere. Barnes was arrested in possession of the drugs.

Turner was then stopped by police as he made his way back to Greater Manchester and found with £30,000 in the car. On that day along it's thought he'd delivered 23kg of coke across the UK.

The arrests allowed detectives to seize their phones. And that meant they could amass a