Gang that imported cocaine and heroin armed themselves with hand grenades and had 'lads who blow heads off'

A drugs gang that was responsible for floods of cocaine and heroin imported into the country had access to grenades and recruited "lads who blow any c***'s head off" a court heard.

Graham Minards was the 'business brain' behind a criminal operation that saw tens of millions of class A drugs brought into the UK. Minards had access to an international network of criminal contacts from countries such as Colombia, Brazil and Dubai.

Minards had a business partner called Peter Bradshaw, and when Bradshaw was in danger with other drugs bosses for amassing huge debts, the pair hatched a plan to respond to the threats with violence through their access to terrifying weapons and explosives.

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As reported in the ECHO, Liverpool Crown Court heard this afternoon, Thursday (April 6), that the two men organised their "very large scale and sophisticated nationwide drugs supply business" via encrypted communications platform EncroChat. A series of messages from between March and June 2020, recovered when the network was infiltrated by law enforcement authorities, showed that they had been "involved in the purchasing and supply of multi-kilo quantities of drugs on a daily basis" and would also move drugs and cash on behalf of others - "believing they would make millions of pounds" in doing do.

Minards was rumbled as the figure behind the handle "CalmTea" after sending pictures of himself to other users. The 37-year-old, of Canella Avenue in Norris Green, had also proudly spoken of his daughter's achievements in karate and of his boiler fitting company to the 100 contacts he had stored on his device.

Meanwhile, 42-year-old Bradshaw - of Pensarn Road