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A drugs gang spotted burying cocaine in woodland areas has been taken down. Yesterday, seven people were sentenced for their part in a £1.6 million drugs racket , after Greater Manchester Police launched a surveillance operation into the outfit. Lee Campbell headed up the gang, taking the reins from his brother Thomas Campbell, who was brutally murdered in his own home. Coleen Campbell , his ex-wife, had plotted with a team of robbers who pounced on him as he walked through his front door in Mossley, Tameside , before they tortured him to death in a horrific killing. Manchester Crown Court heard that GMP launched Operation Kilowatt into the Campbell family organised crime group. Investigators identified a 'graft line', the mobile phone number used to supply drugs, and this led police to other members of the gang who shifted 16.5 kilos of class A drugs between March 14, 2024, and January 30, 2025. Join our Court and Crime WhatsApp group HERE Police launched a surveillance operation which captured another gang member, Carlo Tommasello, walking into woods at Philips Park in Clayton , east Manchester, on six occasions. On another occasion Lee Campbell was observed going into the woods where he was seen burying a large amount of cocaine. Police later dug up a package which contained zip-sealed plastic bags containing drugs worth an estimated £6,200. In a statement issued by GMP today (November 8) after yesterday's hearing, Detective Inspector Claire Moss, of GMP’s City of Manchester North Challenger Team, said: “The City of Manchester North Challenger Team remains relentless in the pursuit and disruption of organised crime groups (OCGs), and these sentences today serve as a reminder that justice will be served. “This OCG made significant profits at the expense of vulnerable drug users and spared no consideration for anyone except themselves and their own gains. "Our team has put a lot of time and effort into this investigation, but our work does not stop here, we will continue to tackle serious and OCGs and the associated violence and exploitation that comes with them. “We do act on information provided by the public, and I want to personally encourage anyone with knowledge of criminal activity in their area to come forward. Every piece of information, no matter how small it might seem, helps us build a clearer picture of criminal activity and take appropriate action.” According to GMP, drug runner Steven Quinn, 'featured heavily in the day-to-day dealing' while Tommasello and another gang member, Kelly Blundell, were said to work closely with Campbell as he ran the business. Lee Campbell, the court heard, had 11 sets of previous convictions for 18 offences to his name, having served a three-year nine-month sentence for robbery while in 2015 he was jailed for four years for possession with intent to supply cocaine. The father, who was said to be receiving therapy for his brother's death, was in contact with numbers abroad to source drugs, according the prosecution. He 'inherited' the business from his late brother and operated as a 'customer of those higher up in the distribution of cocaine', his barrister Ian McMeekin told the court. While on remand, prison bosses had reported the defendant's 'positive work ethic'. He said his client was 'on the road to rehabilitation'. The Recorder of Manchester Nicholas Dean KC said: "Effectively Mr Campbell was running the family business. He wasn't running a corner shop and nor was he running a hypermarket. It was somewhere between, perhaps a small supermarket." Quinn, who had 13 previous convictions to his name including one for possession of crack cocaine, who the prosecution say acted as a street dealer 'on a significant scale', had 'little influence on others' in the gang and had 'shown incite' into his crimes, according to his barrister Amy Weir. Kelly Blundell, a foster carer who answered the drugs line and co-ordinated the supply of cocaine, had acted 'under direction' and her crimes were 'out of character', said her barrister Joshua Bowker. She had found the murder of Thomas Campbell 'difficult to come to terms with' and had got involved in the operation as she had become 'addicted' to online gambling on which she squandered her benefits, said Mr Bowker. Another gang member, former spray painter Mark McGrath, got involved because of debts accrued from his cannabis addiction, according to his barrister Jane Greenhalgh. The father had acted 'very much out of character', said Ms Greenhalgh. The youngest member of the gang, Mark Salinger, who was 22 at the time of the conspiracy, was paid £80-a-day as a drugs runner but he was 'at the bottom of the chain', according to his barrister Stephen Spence. He had acted 'out of familial loyalty naively', said Mr Spence. Another member of the gang, 41-year-old father of two and former deliver driver Paul Taylor, who has spent timed in the armed services until his retirement on medical grounds in 2003, had operated as a 'street dealer', the court heard. He had 18 previous convictions including for possession with intent to supply cannabis. He had been addicted to cocaine and 'struggled financially' when he became involved 'for a modest wage', said his barrister. Lee Campbell's gym buddy Carlo Tommasello, 38, operated the 'graft phone' for up to £150-a-day. But there was 'no evidence' he enjoyed a lavish lifestyle', said his barrister Jonathan Duffy. All seven defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
