The gang stashed their haul of class A, B and C drugs at a storage unit in a Birkenhead business park
Abbie Crane (left) and her stepbrother Benjamin Crane were two of the members of the dark web drug gang(Image: Merseyside Police)
A gang distributed millions of pounds worth of drugs via the dark web by mailing out the orders using the Royal Mail's postal service. The gang, which amassed extensive quantities of class A, B and C controlled drugs including street drugs and prescription medication, had a national and international market - all operated from a storage unit in a Birkenhead business park.
The gang was targeted by Merseyside Police's Operation Terminal, with officers raiding the business park on October 18 last year after following intelligence lines since 2023. Officers found a large quantity of drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, inside the storage unit. A man arrived at the unit a short time later and gave a false name to officers.
He was later identified as Benjamin Crane. Following their arrests detectives examined CCTV at the storage unit and identified Kylie Collins and Abbie Crane, stepsister of Benjamin Crane, as also being present at the unit on a number of occasions. Further enquiries enabled detectives to link activity at the storage unit to a separate investigation at a local convenience store where large numbers of parcels were intercepted and identified as containing drugs.
This investigation identified Kay Davies attending and posting large quantities of parcels. Davies was arrested in January 2024 and admitted posting parcels on behalf of Benjamin Crane. These arrests confirmed the gang predominantly used pre-postage labels and dropped the orders off at a post office in the local convenience store for mailing out via Royal Mail.
The storage unit in Birkenhead where a drug gang stored drugs to be distributed via the dark web(Image: Merseyside Police)
As part of the police's investigations, officers seized drugs estimated to be worth between £1.4m and £2.7m. These seizures included 7kg of MDMA powder, 125,550 ecstasy tablets, 2kg of cocaine, 454g of magic mushrooms, 4kg of LSD, 230 2CB tablets, 8kg of ketamine and over 320,000 prescription tablets including Tapentadol, Diazepam and Tramadol.
All five of those arrested were charged with conspiracy to supply controlled drugs and a trial was heard at Liverpool Crown Court in November 2024. The sentencing was adjourned until Friday, January 24. Benjamin Phillip Crane, 35 of Wakefield Drive in Leasowe, pleaded guilty prior to trial to 11 counts of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Bradley Gene Grey, 43 and also of Wakefield Drive, pleaded guilty on the first day of the trial to 11 counts of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs. He was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison. Abbey Crane, 24 and of Upton Road in Moreton, was found guilty after trial of 11 counts of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs. She was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Kay Davies (left), Kylie Collins (middle) and Bradley Gene Grey were arrested as part of the police probe(Image: Merseyside Police)
Kylie Collins, 36, of Knutsford Green Moreton, was found guilty of 11 counts of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs and was sentenced to six years in prison. Kay Davies, 64 and of Reeds Avenue East in Leasowe, was found guilty of five counts of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.
Detective Sergeant Ste Mercer said: "This was a large-scale drugs enterprise which was being run like a business from a storage unit in Birkenhead. The gang worked together to source, pack and deliver the drugs across the whole of the UK and internationally, utilising the dark web.
Ecstasy tablets found as part of Merseyside Police's Operation Terminal(Image: Merseyside Police)
"Suspicions were raised when parcels delivered to the post office were suspected to contain drugs, upon examination hundreds of packages were found to have class A, B & C drugs inside. We carried out a thorough investigation to identify all those who we believed to be involved in either sourcing, packaging or further distributing the drugs.
"I am sure they believed as their activity was behind the closed doors of a secure unit that they would not be caught out. I am pleased they are all now behind bars for a significant period of time where they can no longer continue to spread misery through their actions."