'When it came to spending money she was fearless': Lavish lifestyle of the gangster's girlfriend who recruited her mum, dad and brother

A drug dealer’s girlfriend recruited her mother, father and brother to his gang after an arrest threatened her lifestyle.

Jonathan Walsh, 33, headed a network which trafficked amphetamine and cannabis from the region to the East Midlands.

While serving a previous 14-year sentence for armed robbery, he met Jodie Bowie on Facebook.

When Walsh got out, he moved in with Bowie in Failsworth, from where he headed up a drugs operation.

She conspired with him in it - and it provided her with luxuries way beyond what she could have afforded working as a carer for the elderly.

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Designer clothes, expensive jewellery, high-powered cars and cosmetic surgery appointments were funded by the ‘sophisticated’ drugs supply line.

When one of Walsh's couriers - Bowie's uncle, Joseph Grey - was arrested, Bowie was so determined to keep things going she enlisted her mum, dad, and brother to help with moving the cash generated by the racket.

Now the family has been sentenced in a Manchester Crown Court case which heard that Jodie Bowie was 'fearless when it came to spending money'.

When Jodie Bowie's home was raided the first time, police found over £100,000 worth of designer clothes as well as £10,000 in cash.

Another police visit recovered clothing valued at £27,000, another £5,410 in cash, while messages on her phone showed her making arrangements with Walsh to spend around £5,000 on cosmetic surgery.

Describing the weeks after Jonathan Walsh and Jodie Bowie moved in together, prosecutor Tom Challinor said: “Over a very short period of time Walsh began to accrue possessions of a lavish lifestyle, including Rolex watches, designer