The seizure of £20m worth of cocaine on the M6 led to a chain of events including multiple shootings around the Warrington area. The huge shipment of drugs stashed in the back of a van was being transported by Jamie Simpson under orders from Jamie Oldroyd.
Oldroyd appeared from the outside to be a successful businessman with a collection of cars who enjoyed flaunting his wealth. But he was later outed as a crime boss, who went from filming videos counting his stacks of cash to sinking into terrifying levels of debt to the point where he ended up on a gangland hitlist.
Operation Dreadnought
The tipping point came when the mega haul of drugs were seized by police officers as part of a year-and-a-half long operation. And ultimately the seizure would not just exert pressure on Oldroyd, but those counting on his product to keep themselves out of the red. What followed were a number of retaliatory shootings where even Warrington's upper echelons of crime were not safe.
Luckily for Oldroyd, the police got to him before he could come to harm. He was busted in February 2018 and was jailed for 14 years and three months for conspiring to supply cocaine. Oldroyd was released on licence, but it was not long before he was back committing crime.
The drug empire unravels
Oldroyd owned a car lease firm which offered him a handy explanation for the 17 different vehicles investigators saw him driving over the course of a 14 month probe. The company appeared to be thriving given the cash that flowed through his hands, but the reality was the money came through the exploits of his drugs gang.
His operation sourced cocaine from powerful underworld figures in the north west, including on Merseyside, he would then distribute it to gangs from Manchester to London, Carlisle to Darlington. The profits were undoubtedly significant. In a homemade film he was captured surrounded by so much cash he needed counting machines to total it up.
Detectives who found the footage when they brought down his criminal enterprise believe there was £150,000 in bank notes spread around him. He was even involved in a police chase that saw him flee from officers in a £30,000 buggy.
His gang was described by police as an "extremely well organised team of criminals who would go to great lengths to conceal their criminality and minimise the chances of being exposed". In a move designed to thwart any surveillance activity, members regularly changed mobile phones, swapped cars and interacted through sophisticated messaging apps that protected their conversations.
The M6 stop and its aftermath
Cheshire Constabulary's Operation Dreadnought focused on Oldroyd's gang and eventually led to the capture of Simpson as he travelled up the M6 with 186kg of cocaine. The M6 operation saw police surround and block off a van and a Nissan Qashqai as they travelled towards Warrington on the evening of August 2, 2018.
The vehicles were heading north from Rochester in Kent, with the cocaine loaded into hidden compartments before the long drive to Warrington. Footage captured from the police helicopter showed how officers from Cheshire Constabulary's serious and organised crime unit moved in on the drugs caravan, forcing other drivers to divert around the blockade.
The huge seizure led to Oldroyd falling into debt with those above him. The debt was thought to have run into the millions and led to the dealer's name effectively finding its way onto a gangland hitlist. The danger to him and his family was very real - businesses linked to his relatives were petrol bombed and had their windows smashed and a family home was shot at.
A compound where he kept Mercedes cars was broken into and the vehicles damaged in a campaign thought to have been overseen from Merseyside. The threat was so substantial the detectives secretly trying to bring him down had to issue him and his family with Osman letters - an official warning police issue if they have uncovered evidence of a murder plot.
Fallout in Warrington's underworld
Oldroyd was eventually tied to the conspiracy when traces of his DNA were found along with cocaine with a street value of over £125,000. He was arrested in February 2018 when he was stopped by officers who found him with almost £1,000.
The seizure of cocaine on the motorway had a knock-on effect that ran through Warrington's gangland. The Tobin brothers, Alan and John, faced a series of threats and intimidation tactics that culminated with the latter shot outside a house in Prescot.
The ECHO previously reported how the shooting was said to have been ordered by a female financier known as "The Banker". In a desperate move to pull themselves out of debt the Tobins started feeding information to other underworld figures which resulted in a number of shooting plots in Warrington. This included an aborted hit targeting the dad of Leon and Anthony Cullen, whose drug gang boasted weapons including an AK-47 assault rifle and pump-action shotgun.
The gangland boss who asked Alan Tobin for information was from Manchester - Salford to be exact - and was later identified as Jamie Rothwell. And messages seized from Alan Tobin's EncroChat device revealed messages about a man referred to as "Alvin".
It later emerged that Alan Tobin was owed £1.5m by "Alvin" - with court proceedings revealing this was actually Oldroyd, who had the unflattering nickname because of his apparent likeness to a chipmunk. When asked what prison Oldroyd was being held in, Alan Tobin said: "He's put me and our kid in this f***ing hole we're in and caused us so much s***...I will owe you the world bro carve the c*** up."
The revelation came during the sentencing hearing of Lewis Fitzpatrick, who along with Aaron Bretherton and Anthony Morris, was convicted of the shooting of an innocent 56-year-old man - the dad of a Cullen associate. Under orders from Rothwell, the plot saw gunman Bretherton pose as a pizza delivery man before opening fire.
The record cocaine seizure was the tipping point that resulted in the removal of players like Oldroyd from the north west drug trade. For his sake, his downfall came at the hands of the police rather than the potentially fatal plots that others might have put in place. Almost two dozen of his associates were also taken off the street.
The cocaine seizure, the instability it caused in Warrington's underworld and the decision of those involved in it to resort to extreme violence also led to the arrests, convictions and large sentences for the likes of the Tobin and Cullen brothers. Rothwell was brought back from Europe in 2021 and was sentenced last year to a huge 43-years in prison.
Detective Chief Inspector Mike Evans, who led Cheshire's investigation, said: "Despite Oldroyd's organised crime group going to great lengths to conceal their criminality and avoid being caught we were always going to be one step ahead. Let this be a warning to other organised criminals out there, Cheshire is and always will be, a very difficult place to operate."
Oldroyd's return to crime
It is not clear exactly when Oldroyd was released on licence from his prison sentence. But by August 1 this year he was definitely back out on the streets of Warrington, because he was back in trouble with the law.
The ECHO reported this week that a police officer responding to reports of a drink driver in the Bridge Street area of Warrington found Oldroyd behind the wheel of a silver Land Rover Defender. The officer noted he appeared to be drunk and following a positive roadside test arrested Oldroyd.
It was also found he had also been disqualified from driving and was not in possession of any insurance. In custody, the now 36-year-old was asked to provide a sample, which he refused.
Enquiries continued and Oldroyd was found to be under the terms of a SCPO - a court order which restricts and disrupts a released person's potential to re-engage with crime. Part of the order against him was to notify police of any vehicles he owned.
In interview, Oldroyd openly admitted he had been drinking and had got behind the wheel of the Land Rover before going on to drive it. He added that prior to being arrested, he had not been using his vehicle and had been spending a considerable amount of money on using taxis.
Appearing earlier this month at Chester Magistrates' Court, he pleaded guilty to breaching the SCPO, driving whilst disqualified, using a motor vehicle without third-party insurance and failing to provide a specimen for analysis.
The now 36-year-old was given a year-long community order, banned from driving for 36 months, required to complete 10 days of unpaid work and ordered to complete a 90-day alcohol abstention programme.
PC Sam Emmitt said: "Serious crime prevention orders are put in place to deter individuals from reoffending – this is clearly something Mr Oldroyd did not understand when he purchased his Land Rover and failed to notify us of its existence. It was this decision, paired with then choosing to have a drink and getting behind the wheel to do laps of the town centre, that has landed him unable to drive for a further three years."
