A HULL mechanic who was caught supplying £2.4m of cocaine in a quiet East Riding village has been jailed.
Paul Critchlow, 46, is beginning a nine-year prison sentence for his part in a major drugs operation, which flooded the streets of north England with cocaine and speed.
Critchlow, who lived on the Greatfield estate in east Hull before moving to a caravan in the East Riding, admitted carrying out a £290,000 mortgage fraud earlier this year.
He has now become one of 11 people to be jailed for a total of 105 years for conspiring to supply class A drugs, after an eight-week trial in Nottingham.
It followed an investigation between Humberside and Nottinghamshire police forces.
Critchlow had been seen dropping off a black holdall stuffed with cocaine through the window of co-defendants Catherine Harpham and Michael Lawrence's car in the village of Beeford, near Bridlington.
Detective Chief Inspector Alan Mason, of the East Midlands special operations unit, said: "This case demonstrates the complexity of drugs supply conspiracies which operate through a network of associates, some of whom may be located in different parts of the country, let alone the region.
"The number of suspects involved also gives a clue as to the level of detail the officers investigating the case had to uncover from their enquiries in order to piece together a successful prosecution case."
The holdall Critchlow passed over contained 3kg of near-pure cocaine in three large blocks. On its own, it was worth £600,000.
However, once it was cut with other substances and sold on the streets, it could have earned the gang £2.4m.
Critchlow, of Main Street, Sigglesthorne, near Hornsea, had handed over the drugs to Harpham and Lawrence, who were then stopped by officers as they drove down the A1 in November last year.
The pair's steps were traced back to Beeford, where Critchlow had made the drop-off.
The gang's operation began to unravel in July last year when a van was stopped on the A1 near Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, containing 10kg of amphetamine, worth an estimated £227,000.
Detectives linked the drugs to the Protein Masters store in Sutton, Derbyshire. When officers raided the shop, they found 7kg of amphetamine in buckets, drains and toilets.
The store was used as a cover for the multi-million-pound drugs operation, where they stored large amounts of amphetamine sulphate, or speed, before cutting and packaging it up.
During the police raid, Critchlow's co-defendants Craig Donnelly and Daniel Robinson locked themselves in the shop and desperately tried to flush the drugs down the toilet, but ended up blocking the drains.
Nottingham Police then joined forces with Humberside Police and arrested Critchlow, who was already known to police following a two-year investigation into mortgage fraud.
He had grossly exaggerated his earnings to Santander and other mortgage companies to buy a detached farmhouse in the East Riding, a property in Hull and the £240,000 Villa Farm in Brandesburton.
Det Chief Insp Mason said: "We are determined to dismantle criminal groups that supply drugs to and within our region."
People jailed alongside Critchlow• Ben Mullins, 33, of Ripley, Derbyshire – 18 years.
• Daniel Robinson, 30, of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire – 17 years.
• Craig Donnelly, 23, of Huthwaite, Nottinghamshire – 17 years.
• Anthony Donnelly, 31, of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire – 12 years.
• Charles Corke, 31, of Huyton, Merseyside – nine years.
• Michael Lawrence, 25, of Stanton Hill, Nottinghamshire – nine years.
• Richie Fido, 29, of Brinsley, Nottinghamshire – five years and four months.
• Edward Taylor, 30, of Swinton, Greater Manchester – four years and four months.
• Andrew Brimble, 39, of Tibshelf, Derbyshire – four years
• Catherine Harpham, 24, Stanton Hill, Nottinghamshire was sentenced at an earlier hearing to 12 months.
• Joshua Patchett, 29, of Awsworth, Nottinghamshire will be sentenced on September 10.
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