Grantham cocaine and heroin dealers sentenced

A drug dealing operation which brought at least 10kg of cocaine to the streets of Grantham and was in excess of £1 million pounds in value was taken down by police officers in Lincolnshire – and those responsible have now been sentenced to more than 60 years between them.

The hearing at Lincoln Crown Court took place over the past two days (14 and 15 February), where the court heard how Shane Hamilton, 39, and Daniel Burnett, 39, were responsible for coordinating the collection of class A drugs from Liverpool and managing street-level dealers in Grantham, assisted by couriers Martyn Rudkin, 41, and Andrew Hamilton, 40. These drugs were being supplied by James Stenson, 39, from his base in Liverpool, who was assisted by his associate, Andrew Cornwall, 33.

All had pleaded guilty to their part in the conspiracy thanks to an investigation by officers in Lincolnshire Police’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit, who had started to pick up on increased intelligence regarding the organised crime group in September 2020.

Now, we’re going to take you through how our officers pieced together the case.

Using phone data, intelligence from traffic data, and intel on drug sales in the town, officers tracked more than 40 trips to Liverpool carried out by Burnett, Rudkin, and Hamilton – the latter two acting as drivers for Burnett and also carrying out solo trips – between September 2020 and September 2021. Text messages later showed Hamilton was offered £1,000 for a single trip, and he carried out at least eight.

It was suspected that the supplies of cocaine and heroin were coming from Liverpool – but the team needed to link the three to a location or individual.

A key break in the case came in January 2021, when Burnett, who was a disqualified driver, was stopped and arrested for driving offences in the Liverpool area. A man travelled to the scene to try and help him, and provided his name. This crucial bit of information gave officers the potential contact in Liverpool. The man turned out to be the Liverpool-based supplier, Stenson, and an examination of phone data further linked the pair. This intelligence created a building block for the investigation

Shame Hamilton and Burnett were operating the drugs lines using a series of unregistered so-called ‘burner’ mobile phones. Search warrants and other data examined during the investigation, found 31 phones attributed to the pair which had been in use between September 2020 and September 2021.

These phones led to another key break. One recovered from Rudkin had a photograph of his vehicle – a black Mercedes E220 – parked outside a storage unit. Using GPS coordinates attached to that photograph, officers were able to match the location to a commercial storage unit at Heysham Road, Liverpool rented by Stenson for £5,200 per year. This unit was later searched and found to have only just been cleaned, with the floor still wet. Left inside was a bundle of cash totalling £10,010 in a bag; instructions for a cash counting machine; and a pair of red plastic gloves coated in a mixture of amphetamine, caffeine and a cocaine cutting agent.

Forensic testing also played a major role in linking the men to their crimes. The bag and cash found at the storage unit had Cornwall’s fingerprints on, while Stenson’s DNA was later matched to DNA on one of the red plastic gloves.

Messages, photos and video files found on the seized phones showed how Burnett and Cornwall discussed buying money counting machines, shared images of large quantities of cash, several kilogram blocks of cocaine, and made videos called “business meetings” showing Burnett and Shane Hamilton with a bundle of cash and two burner-style Nokia phones which were sent to Stenson. Another video showed Burnett taking a picture of a large quantity of cash whilst on route to Liverpool with the text “41,000 smackers !!!!!!” – the same cost of a kilo of cocaine. Another video GPS-stamped as being taken in Liverpool showed Burnett in Stenson’s company with two kilograms of cocaine.

On 1 October 2021 a warrant was conducted at a property connected to Burnett in Sandcliffe Road, Grantham. In the garage, four bags containing a total of 79.67g heroin was found. Forensic testing placed Shane Hamilton’s fingerprint on two of the bags. There was also a bag containing 1 kilogram of a cocaine cutting agent; 55 self-seal ‘snap’ bags containing cocaine in street-sale quantities, as well as empty snap bags and weighing scales; and a bag containing a mixture of over-the-counter drugs used as cutting agents for heroin. Both Shane Hamilton’s and Cornwall’s fingerprints were found on this bag.

A search was also made at a unit in Kirton in Lindsey, Lincolnshire, and a Ford Escort Cosworth which Shane Hamilton had paid £48,000 for, was seized.

Officers were also able to link a bag with 10oz of crack cocaine which had been thrown from a vehicle driven by Rudkin following a visit to Stenson’s house to Stenson through his DNA, which was found on the packaging of the drugs.

A warrant conducted at Shane Hamilton’s home address in Houghton Road, Grantham led to the discovery of a burner phone which was confirmed as the drugs line used by the organised crime group, and had been used to issue bulk text messages offering cocaine. Officers also found a large number of handwritten notes relating to class A drugs supply. A forensic document examiner concluded that there was strong support that Shane Hamilton wrote the notes.

At the lower end of the group was street-level dealer Harley Paddison, 21, of Ivatt Court, who was arrested in possession of 94 wraps cocaine, a zombie knife and phone which showed outgoing drugs’ marketing messages.

Darryll Fottles, another street-level dealer, was found in possession of suspected drugs phone line.

The officers in SOCU were helped by the local Grantham Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) who knew the group and were able to provide local intelligence.

DC Toby Manley was one of the officers leading the investigation. He said: “There is no doubt that Shane Hamilton played a leading role, along with Daniel Burnett. Both were buying and selling drugs on a commercial scale, and had substantial links to, and influence on, others in the chain. They were employing runners, and had substantial rewards from the sale of these drugs, all of which they got from their upstream supplier in Liverpool, James Stenson.

“The more we dug, the more we unearthed; Andrew Hamilton was involved not only as a courier of cash and drugs, travelling to Liverpool seven times, he was also believed to have assisted Burnett in preparing drugs for street sale after Burnett had purchased drugs from Stenson for an enormous bill of £99,880. Then we have Andrew Cornwall, who was working from Stenson and had unsupervised access to the warehouse in Liverpool where we eventually found evidence of cash and drugs production.

“This group was taken down because of solid and dogged investigation. These investigations take time, patience and the ability to jigsaw a huge number of moving parts alongside other investigations. The sentences today reflect the severity of their offending, and I hope sends a message that we will come for you if you deal on the streets of Lincolnshire.”

The following were charged with conspiracy to supply a class A controlled drug (heroin) and conspiracy to supply a class A controlled drug (cocaine).

Shane Hamilton, 39, of no fixed address from the Grantham area, was sentenced to 12 years and 9 months
Daniel Burnett, 39, of Sandcliffe Road, Grantham, was sentenced to 13 years and 3 months
James Stenson, 39, of Lawson Walk, Liverpool, was sentenced to 12 years and 9 months
Martyn Rudkin, 41, of Hamilton Road, Grantham, was sentenced to 6 years and 3 months
Andrew Hamilton, 40, of Kinoulton Court Grantham, was sentenced to 6 years and 9 months
Andrew Cornwall, 33, of Hillbrook Drive, Liverpool, was sentenced to 8 years and 6 months

Two further people were also charged:

Harley Paddison, 21, of Ivatt Court, who was charged with conspiracy to supply a class A controlled drug (cocaine), and possession of a knife/ sharply pointed article in a public place. He was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months.

He also received a consecutive sentence of 12 months for an unrelated matter for offences of assault of an emergency worker, possession class A, and possession of a knife/ sharply pointed article in a public place committed in January 2024.

Darryl Fottles, 63, of no fixed address from the Grantham area, who was charged with participating in the activities of an organised crime group. He was sentenced to an 18 month community order

The men are pictured below: