"He has an absolutely terrible record"
Umar Hamid was the leader of a drugs gang that ran two drugs lines – the Felix line and CCPP (cannabis, coke, powder and pills) line.
The criminal ran the operation from his prison cell at HMP Liverpool.
Hamid had been serving a 22-year sentence for rape after being convicted in February 2021.
Using an illegal mobile phone, Hamid directed the operation from his prison cell before his release in September 2019.
Between 2018 and 2020, hundreds of text messages were sent to drug users in Hyndburn, Rossendale and Blackburn on an almost daily basis.
On the outside was 17-year-old Joshua Haslam who had turned to drugs after suffering difficulties at home, and lived a chaotic lifestyle.
Haslam was trusted by Hamid to maintain the operation on the outside, in return for financial gain.
When Haslam told Hamid’s wife Khadija he was skint, she promised:
“Yeah, he’s home soon. You won’t be skint anymore.”
Within days, Hamid was released from prison and the Felix line was launched – selling heroin and crack cocaine.
Also involved was Charles Robertshaw, a former construction worker who had turned to drugs after he was seriously injured in a motorbike accident in 2016.
He began using the CCPP line to sell drugs and was in frequent contact with Hamid and his wife.
Police eventually raided his home and discovered a homemade explosive.
Several arrests were made during the course of the 16-month conspiracy.
Officers found thousands of text messages offering drugs for sale and making arrangements for “drops”.
Nicknames were linked to the defendants and burner phones were regularly found to be travelling in tandem with the defendants’ own mobile phones.
On November 6, 2019, police searched Robertshaw’s home.
They found engineering tools and a metal tube containing components from a firework.
They also found a diary containing chemical formulas and videos showing Robertshaw decanting powder into the tube.
In one video, Robertshaw was seen building an improvised explosive device, saying:
“That’s double what’s in a 12 gauge. It’ll blow more than the car up.”
In another, shot in an Audi vehicle, the driver lit a fuse and threw the device out of the window – before a loud bang went off.
Explosives expert Daniel Crutchley concluded that the cylinder was a “small and not very sophisticated IED which could propel shrapnel and cause injury”.
In June 2019, cannabis was stolen from a farm linked to the conspiracy.
Pascoe Gilheaney and Jake Harper made repeated attempts to contact a family who they believed to be behind the raid.
They later threatened an innocent man with an imitation gun and damaged his van.
At an earlier hearing in February 2020, Gilheaney was jailed for 28 months in a young offenders institute.
Judge Simon Medland QC said: “You were very young at the time and you have the other matters which you were sentenced for.
“There are issues of totality which do not apply to the others.
“I make you no promises – you must expect an immediate sentence of custody.
“There is one option that is an alternative to that, but that is up to you.
“You stay out of trouble, keep the right side of the law, do something productive with your life and not behave like a yob with a BB gun in your hand.”
Harper received an 18-month sentence.
Umar Hamid was jailed for a further 10 years and 10 months.
Haslam was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison.
Robertshaw for jailed for six years and seven months.
Judge Simon Medland QC said: “Anybody who needs to consider how catastrophic drugs are in people’s lives need look no further than this case and Joshua Haslam and Charles Robertshaw.
“Class A drugs destroy people’s lives, they corrode society, break up families and destroy people’s health, mental welfare and ability to work.
“It ends up all too often with people facing very long sentences in custody,.
“This is a catastrophe in the lives of a young person and a person of previous good character who could have had a bright future.
“But because of the terrible effects these drugs have and also because of the way in which they are acted out to promote the actions of serious organised criminals, and determined criminals such as Umar Hamid, the courts have to take a very serious view of them.
“Hamid was the boss of bosses within the context of these offences.”
“He has an absolutely terrible record for very, very serious crimes and is already serving a very, very long prison sentence for other matters.
“Joshua Haslam, you a still a very young man.
“It is a terrible shame to see young men in the mess you have got yourself into from time to time, and it is because of your involvement in drugs.
“You have to learn the hard way that if you deal in drugs on a commercial basis, your sentence will be a long one.”
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