‘Long Haired Luke’ gang who promised the ‘fattest and best stuff’ foiled by receding hairlines and 'repeated trips to buy chickens'

For 178 days, the Long Haired Luke 2 drugs line ran like clockwork - day and night - between Salford and Warrington.

During six months, the county line gang is estimated to have brought around between 1.7kg and 3.5kg of class A drugs onto the streets - with a value of up to £500,000.

Sending out flare messages - often teasing the ‘fattest and best’ drugs - they would tempt users in the small town of Warrington with crack cocaine and heroin.

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But exactly a year on from their activity, some 14 individuals have been jailed for a total of more than 59 years.

The Long Haired Luke line was burst open at the seams and dismantled thanks to Cheshire Constabulary’s Operation Spartans - a crackdown on organised crime groups in the area.

Chickens, receding hairlines and covert operations would all form part of a dedicated investigation unearthing the gang’s activity and this is how they were caught...

Between January and the end of June 2021, the Long Haired Luke line worked as a covert operation based in Salford, but providing drugs to Warrington.

A sentencing hearing at Liverpool Crown Court heard how the gang was led by Craig Williams, 20, of Liverpool Street in Salford.

Williams, who was once a talented footballer, would arrange the deals in Warrington from his Salford home while managing the gang’s many graft, or burner, phones.

His involvement took place while being in breach of a previously imposed suspended sentence for dangerous driving and handling stolen goods.

Williams, who has one previous conviction for four offences, was given a jail sentence of six years and eight months.

Judge Andrew Menary, proceeding