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Car valeting business owner jailed for drug trafficking

A drug trafficker who used his car valeting business as a front to supply cocaine has been jailed. 

Christopher Shaw, aged 39, from Croxteth in Liverpool, owned UK Valeting Solutions in Widnes and recruited employee Mark Currie, aged 20, from Runcorn, to act as a courier.

In August 2014, National Crime Agency officers watched as Shaw met another criminal associate, William Quinn, aged 50, from Huyton in Liverpool, at the junction of Rutland Avenue and Church Road in Halewood.

(Left to right) Christopher Shaw, Mark Currie and William Quinn

Following the meeting Quinn collected a package from an address in Leathers Lane and went back to Rutland Avenue where he placed the package in a UK Valeting van being driven by Currie.

The officers alerted Merseyside Police and Currie was stopped on Kings Drive. He was arrested and a black holdall recovered from the passenger footwell contained three kilos of cocaine. A search of a house in Wood Lane led to the seizure of cash totaling £48,710.

NCA officers arrested Shaw and Quinn at their home addresses in September 2014. Over £6,000 cash was found in a kitchen unit at Shaw’s home. Drugs paraphernalia including scales were also recovered at the Leathers Lane address used by Quinn.

The three men, who all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine at an earlier hearing, were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday. Shaw received eight years and four months, while Quinn and Currie received six years and six months and four years and six months respectively. 

Greg McKenna, from the National Crime Agency, said:

“Shaw thought he could stay under the law enforcement radar by using his company as a front for his criminality but he didn't know that we had him under surveillance.

”As a result of diligent partnership work between officers from the NCA, Merseyside Police and Cheshire Police, Shaw and his criminal associates are now in jail.

“The NCA will continue to work with partners across the UK and overseas to stop the harm that drug trafficking causes.”

 

Channel website: http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/

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