Drug lord, Julian Solomon flooded the Midlands with heroin and cocaine as part of an international trafficking operation run from his bedroom has been jailed for 25 years.
Julian Solomon was one of eight men to be caught after police found more than £66 million worth of Class A drugs in the back of a lorry – the biggest drug seizure Greater Manchester Police has ever made.
Solomon, a former bouncer, ran the operation – that saw drugs trafficked from Belgium to the UK via Holland – from his home in Hale, near to Manchester Airport.
He then arranged for the drugs to be distributed among dealers across the region. But his downfall came after the massive haul of heroin and cocaine was discovered in a lorry carrying a tractor at King George Docks in Hull last year.
The swoop was the culmination of months of surveillance by officers from GMP’s Serious Organised Crime Group. It led to seven of the gang being jailed – for over 103 years.
The facts can only be reported now that the eighth man involved in the operation has pleaded guilty. He is currently awaiting sentencing.
Preston Crown Court heard the drugs sold by Solomon’s gang were concealed in agricultural equipment and trailers.
From Hull they would travel to a village in Derbyshire and picked up by David Reece and Frank Eaton, who had both previously served prison time in Belgium for drugs importation charges.
From their hiding place in Derbyshire, the drugs were sent out to regional distributors like Solomon.
With the help of associates Graham Rawling, Gerard Young and James Newhall, Solomon distributed the drugs to local crime bosses. Another man, Jason Starmer, helped Eaton send drugs across the West Midlands, while eighth man Everton Bailey handled the East Midlands arm of the plot.
Detective Inspector Tony Norman, of GMP’s Serious Organised Crime Group said: ‘These men operated one of the largest international drug importation networks that GMP has ever investigated, with the seizure of over £66m worth of drugs at Hull port – a key moment in our operation. ‘Their offending didn’t just have a local impact on Greater Manchester; it reached across the UK and will no doubt have had a ripple effect in mainland Europe where their money was lining the pockets of crime bosses.
‘We know how much misery local dealers can inflict on people’s lives, however men like Eaton, Reece, Solomon and Starmer are the ones who are responsible for supplying those local dealers, enabling them to blight our communities and flood our streets with drugs.
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