Kevin Taylor was the head of a much-feared organised crime gag that ran the streets of Newcastle for years but was finally brought down by determined police earlier this year
The leader of one of Newcastle’s most feared organised crime gangs has been jailed for 27 years. His sentencing comes after a huge plot to flood the streets of the city and the North East in general with class A drugs such as cocaine.
Newcastle Crown Court heard how Kevin Taylor had been sitting on a £68million drugs empire. The syndicate tried a host of different ways to move the ilicit substances into the UK, all while going under the radar of police.
However, their cover was eventually blown after the encrypted messenger service they had been using to communicate was busted by police in France. Now, Kevin — who was the kingpin of the gang, is now starting a lengthy prison sentence together with other members of the criminal gang.
ChronicleLive reported that Taylor and his group had used a variety of ways to get the drugs past the watchful eye of the police, including importing the drugs in gas canisters so that they would not get checked by officers. The group used an encrypted messenger service called Encrochat in order to communicate, with Kevin being in charge of the collection of large quantities of cash and substances.
Other members of the group were arrested a short time after Kevin was apprehended, with the second-in-command of the group – 60-year-old David Jeavons – being hit with a prison sentence of 10 years and eight months for his latest set of offences. As well as this, 53-year-old David Bowen was the middle man during the cocaine importation, and was given a jail sentence of four years.
When sentencing Kevin, who had been nicknamed “Loyal Mover” on the messaging service, presiding Judge Julie Clemitson said the gang were flouting COVID rules in order to get up to their dirty deeds. She said: “While the world battled the pandemic and families mourned the loss of their freedom and in some cases their loved ones, you were all engaged in spreading further pain and misery by transporting large amounts of cocaine.”
She added that evidence had been found that gun threats had been made several times over the course of their criminal actions. “The threats with guns demonstrate the violent underbelly of the group you were,” she remarked.
Judge Clemitson added that due their actions, cocaine was flooded onto the streets of the North East and millions of pounds were poured into the pockets of the crime gang. She went on to blast the group for the lack of remorse they had for the impact the drugs would have on society.
“Most of you have experienced prison now and you will have seen at first hand the cost and how many of your fellow inmates are there because of their addiction,” she fumed. “How many are in there because you and people like you flooded the streets with cocaine.”
Speaking directly to Kevin when passing the gang’s sentences, she went on to say that the act of drug trafficking was a “wicked” thing to do, and only served to hurt the community. She added: “What a tragic waste you have chosen to go down this path; that your greed has caused immense pain and suffering for your own families, who you no doubt told yourselves you were doing this for.”
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