Heroin gang led by lorry driver granddad partied in Vegas while claiming benefits

A heroin trafficking gang led by a lorry-driving pensioner holidayed in Las Vegas while claiming benefits. Stanley Feerick was locked up after using his job as as cover to transport hundreds of thousands of pounds of the Class A drug across the country, the Liverpool Echo reports.

The 68-year-old was also part of an organised crime group behind a £1million amphetamine lab who carried out deals in a Costco car park. He was previously jailed 10 years ago after being revealed as the ringleader of a money laundering racket.

Feerick was one of six people imprisoned over the £350,000 plot, which saw bundles of dirty cash stored at a house in Dovecot, Liverpool after a delivery from a 'big ugly man who looked like Shrek'.

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One conspirator, then 53-year-old Edna Fairclough, claimed incapacity benefit despite living a luxury lifestyle - including a family trip to Vegas. Police who raided the home she shared with Feerick on Longreach Road, Knotty Ash found Louis Vuitton, Mulberry and Prada handbags as well as Vivienne Westwood jewellery and a gold diamond ring valued at £27,885.

The court was told Everton fan Feerick, then 59, had a personalised EFC1 licence plate which had a retail value of £26,175 as well as a £4,083 season ticket in the Brian Labone executive lounge at Goodison Park.

When the search warrant was executed in February 2011, officers discovered £126,005 in cash in separate packages. These included £89,800 in a red Henry bag in the kitchen, £13,940 in a carrier bag on the living room floor and £12,890 in a Harvey Nichols shopping bag in the master bedroom.

Several of the bundles were made up of Scottish bank notes. When quizzed by detectives