Drugs gang who planned 'industrial scale' methamphetamine lab in Lanarkshire sentenced

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Members of drugs gang who planned to produce methamphetamine at a lab in Motherwell on an “industrial scale” have been handed prison sentences.They were among five men convicted following a police sting that brought down the £1million-plus cross-country drugs factory.Stephen King, 49, from Dumbarton, was snared as a lackey in a drugs mob, headed up by “kingpin” Terence Earle, which trafficked truckloads of heroin and cocaine between Merseyside and Scotland.The Lanarkshire Live app is available to download now.

Get all the news from your area – as well as features, entertainment, sport and the latest on Lanarkshire’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic – straight to your fingertips, 24/7.The free download features the latest breaking news and exclusive stories, and allows you to customise your page to the sections that matter most to you.Head to the App Store and never miss a beat in Lanarkshire - iOS - Android But it all unravelled after King was caught meeting co-conspirator Stanley Feerick in November 2020 during the National Crime Agency’s Operation Joyfully.Shortly afterwards, Feerick was arrested driving a lorry containing a bag packed with heroin worth £300,000, and £20,000 in cash.In December 2020, police used spiked strips to stop a lorry carrying 560kg of alpha-phenylacetoacetamide (APAA), a chemical used to make amphetamine, after it loaded up at a warehouse near Blackpool.If it had made its way to Scotland, cops estimate it could have produced a tonne (1000kg) of the drug, worth £1.1million.Investigations revealed that the gang – leader Earle, King, Feerick, Lee Baxter and Stephen Singleton – co-ordinated their activities using encrypted messaging app EncroChat.However, the platform was infiltrated by