10 year sentence for drug dealer shot between trials
09 December 2009
Brian Ferguson, who yesterday pleaded guilty at the start of his retrial for supplying amphetamine and cannabis, was sentenced to 10 years at Newcastle Crown Court today (09 December 2009).
At his first trial, Ferguson had claimed that he had merely been conned into looking after the drugs. Released on bail after the jury failed to reach a verdict he was later shot on Sunday 19th July 2009 while at home in his garden.
Ferguson was discovered by Northumbria Police to be storing 56 kilos of high grade amphetamine and 141 kilos of herbal cannabis in a van he owned in February 2008. The drugs had a combined street value of £2.6 million.
£8,000 in cash and a quantity of the cutting agent Lignocaine were subsequently found at Ferguson’s eight bedroom house in Doxford Park, Sunderland, as well as modest quantities of cocaine and ecstasy.
Significantly a large quantity of packaging that matched the drugs boxes found in his van was also recovered from his home address, confirming that the drugs recovered from the van were only a part of the consignment, and that this was not the first load to be imported by Ferguson.
Commenting on the result, a spokesman for SOCA said: “Brian Ferguson was a major figure in the distribution of illegal drugs in the North of England and this is an excellent result for both SOCA and the Northumbria police. Ferguson was clearly involved in a wide range of drug dealing, with connections both in the North of England and in the Netherlands. SOCA will continue to investigate these links with our partners, both in the UK and overseas, to cut off these supply routes and bring the drug traffickers to justice.”
DCI John Lingwood said: "Drugs cause great misery in our communities and Northumbria Police is determined to take the fight to drug dealers like Ferguson and damage them as much as we can.
"We are grateful to the public of Sunderland for their help in identifying and providing information about the activities of people like this.
"Anyone with information about drug supply and use in their community can contact us in confidence and we'll do everything we can to act on the information we receive."