Members of a gang who set up an amphetamine laboratory in a leafy North Yorkshire village have been jailed for a total of 24 years.
Residents of Husthwaite, between Easingwold and Thirsk, became suspicious of activity at a property in the picturesque village.
They contacted North Yorkshire Police. And when officers raided the house and outbuilding, they found two men in the process of manufacturing amphetamine oil.
There was a ‘significant amount’ of hazardous chemicals creating noxious vapours, lab equipment and £20,000 in cash.
Philip Lister and his brother-in-law, Ryan Beer were arrested at the scene.
Detectives discovered they were using the EncroChat messaging system, known to be a communication tool of criminals, and this led them to arrest two other suspects, Stephen Henry Singleton and Jordan Russell Blackburn.
Singleton ran a chemical company in St Helens, Merseyside, and Blackburn ran a cleaning solutions company in West Yorkshire. They led the operation.
Lister was the ‘chef’ producing the drugs, with occasional help from Beer.
Their criminal operation at the time of their arrest was capable of producing 523kg of street purity amphetamine. Chemicals at the site could have been turned into drugs worth £5 million.
The chemicals not only posed a health threat to the gang, but also to those living nearby.
Singleton, 36, of York Road, Birkdale, Sefton; Blackburn, 34, of York Road, Leeds; and Beer, 30, of Chandos Mews, Leeds, were all found guilty by jury of conspiracy to produce amphetamine at Teesside Crown Court in December 2022.
They were jailed on 13 January 2023 but due to an outstanding court case involving Singleton in another area, the case could not be reported until now.
Singleton was jailed for nine years and two months, Blackburn was jailed for eight years and nine months, and Beer was jailed for two years and four months.
Lister, 41, of Wykebeck Avenue, Osmandthorpe, Leeds was charged with conspiracy to produce amphetamine and money laundering. He pleaded guilty to both charges and was sentenced to four years and four months in prison.
DC Borchardt said: “This was a significant criminal enterprise that was disrupted thanks to the suspicions of local people who were concerned about the constant activity at the property and the smell of chemicals emanating from the building.
“The gang used a criminally encrypted communication platform at a significant financial cost believing that they could use it to run their criminal activities safely, they were wrong.
“Along with local residents, and working with the National Crime Agency, North Yorkshire Police Organised Crime Unit was able to disrupt and bring this criminal gang to justice.”
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