Gang jailed for drugs plot hatched on Merseyside

Dec 20 2006 by Sam Lister, Liverpool Daily Post

THE Merseyside ringleader of Jersey’s biggest ever drugs smuggling racket was jailed yesterday for nine years.

John O’Connor, (pictured far right), was caught masterminding an operation to smuggle £400,000 worth of cannabis into the island after a Europe-wide investigation.

The 48-year-old, along with Neil Heskin, (pictured far left), and Alan Smitton, (pictured centre), managed to land 279 bars of cannabis resin on Belcroute Bay, one of the island’s beaches, in November last year.

O' Connor, from Queensway, Wallasey, was arrested at his flat in Havre des Pas with Smitton – originally from Liverpool but who now lives on the island – the same night.

Heskin, who had been depositing money in Jersey to fund the operation, was arrested in January this year by Merseyside police at his home in Rake Lane, Wallasey.

Det Sgt Louis Beghin, from the States of Jersey Police drugs squad, said: “The sentences handed down yesterday to the eight men involved in Jersey's biggest ever conspiracy case mark the end of a long and complex drugs operation for the drugs squad of States of Jersey Police.

“John O' Connor, based in Liverpool, was the principal organiser of this operation to bring £400,000 worth of cannabis into Jersey.

“It involved people based on the continent who are currently being sought by the police for their involvement, and the full Jersey network.”

The men all admitted conspiring to bring cannabis into Jersey and were arrested at the end of a long police and customs operation.