Titan Investigation Sees 14 Men Jailed in £1.4 Million Drugs Swoop

Fourteen people have been jailed following an investigation by TITAN - the North West Regional Crime Unit - that netted £1.2m, heroin and cocaine worth more than £200,000 and a sawn-off shotgun.

The investigation ran for approximately six months and focused on an organised crime group, predominantly from the Leigh area, who laundered large amounts of cash and were involved in the sale and supply of significant quantities of drugs.

Detective Superintendent Jason Hudson, head of operations for TITAN, said: “James Close was effectively the patriarch of a crime gang involved in criminality that spanned dirty cash, drugs and firearms.

“These men and their associates are involved in crime for the sole purpose of making money, so to hit them so hard and so deep in the pocket by recovering £1.2m - that we believe to have been amassed entirely through their criminal enterprises - is a massive result.

“We have also taken off the streets considerable quantities of drugs and perhaps most significantly, a shotgun, that would undoubtedly have been used to commit further violent offences at some point.

“This weapon obviously has the potential to maim or kill so it is no exaggeration to safe the streets, particularly around Leigh where this gang mostly operated, are much safer.

“I must praise the investigation and prosecution team, whose professionalism and tenacity has been instrumental in dismantling and bringing to justice a violent criminal group.

“We will now utilise the legislation available to us under the Proceeds of Crime Act to strip them further of their ill-gotten gains.”

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