Rochdale man found guilty over drug-cutting scam

Jamie Dale

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Three men – including one from Rochdale – who conspired to supply the illegal drugs trade with tonnes of chemicals used as cutting agents have been found guilty.

Between September 2005 and July 2008, Jamie Dale from Rochdale, assisted by John Cawley from Birmingham and Barry Hartley form Burnley, imported and supplied almost 36 tonnes of cutting agents.

If these chemicals were mixed at a ratio of 1:1 with class A drugs – a dilution typical at the very top of the supply chain – the street value of the resultant powders would be more than £3.5billion.

An investigation by the Serious Organised Crime Agency identified 21 seizures where chemicals supplied by Dale’s organisation were recovered in circumstances consistent with illegal drug distribution, many as a direct result of intelligence provided by tracking the chemicals supplied by Dale.

The seizures spanned the breadth of the UK from Bristol to Rotherham, Edinburgh to Bournemouth. 

Dale, 32, of Claymere Avenue, Rochdale, Cawley, 31, of Edgbaston Crescent, Birmingham, and Hartley, 53, of Arkwright Street, Burnley, were each unanimously found guilty on three charges of conspiring to supply drugs namely heroin, cocaine and amphetamine. 

All three defendants are due to be sentenced on Thursday (24 November)

Senior investigating officer John Wright, said: “These are convictions for conspiracy to supply class A drugs though the men were dealing in cutting agents. As far as SOCA is concerned, knowingly selling such chemicals to drug dealers makes you as guilty as the dealers themselves.

“The trade in cutting agents is a major enabler of criminal activity, generating huge profits for drug dealers and making class A drugs cheaper and more available at street level. Without criminals such as Jamie Dale, cocaine would cost users four or five times as much, making it prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of the country, and consequently far less accessible.”

Alun Milford, Head of Organised Crime Division at the CPS, said: “This prosecution was based almost entirely on the wholesale supply of cutting agent chemicals which were intended to be cut with class A drugs, thereby increasing the volume and the street value up to a staggering estimated value of £3.5 billion.

“The three defendants were found guilty of offences of conspiring to supply Class A controlled drugs - cocaine and diamorphine - and a Class B drug, amphetamine; this was the first time such charges were applied to activities involving such large amounts of cutting agents.

“Jamie Dale bought the cutting agents using a dummy ‘front’ company, assisted by John Cawley, while the third defendant Barry Hartley was involved in the delivery and onward supply of the chemicals to their contacts in the drugs world. All three men denied their involvement and have been brought before the courts where they were today convicted for their crimes, following a ten-week trial.

“This complex and lengthy investigation by SOCA also involved a large number of police forces and successful prosecution has broken this criminal chain near the start. Police and CPS will continue to bring those involved in such insidious crimes to justice.”

The chemicals supplied by Dale include benzocaine, lidocaine and procaine, which are commonly used to cut cocaine and which are also mixed with amphetamine and heroin.

There were also large importations of paracetamol and caffeine which are both common cutting agents for heroin. During the three years of the investigation, Dale and his associates imported 20 per cent of the global demand for benzocaine. This is the most commonly used cutting agent for cocaine once it has arrived in the UK.