Members of Tobin brothers’ drugs gang jailed for 60 years

The Tobin brothers’ organised crime group also ordered a £20million shipment of the class A drug be trafficked across the country.

The £20million shipment of drugs

Their organised crime group was taken down by Cheshire Police’s Operation Kings after a series of raids in St Helens, Warrington and Widnes in September last year.

Today, Tuesday, the pair and three co-conspirators were locked up at Liverpool Crown Court.

Alan Tobin, of Widnes, was handed 20 years behind bars while John Tobin was caged for 19 years and eight months.

Alan Tobin

Both brothers, aged 51 and 40 respectively, admitted conspiracy to supply heroin, cocaine, ketamine and cannabis during an earlier hearing.

John Tobin

Thirty-eight-year-old Robbie Broughton, of Breccia Gardens in St Helens, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years after admitting conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Simon Leech, of Warrington, was handed eight years after the 29-year-old pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine.

And 51-year-old Brian McQuillan, also of Warrington, was jailed for six years and four months after admitting money laundering – bringing the combined total of the sentences to 62-and-a-half years.

Their ring supplied huge amounts of cocaine to Warrington gang bosses Anthony and Leon Cullen and another OCG operated by Jamie Oldroyd.

The Tobins also instructed fellow criminal Jamie Simpson to deliver 186kg of cocaine – worth an estimated £20million – from Kent to Warrington on their behalf.

But the force’s serious and organised crime unit seized these drugs during a dramatic sting on the M6 near Knutsford in August 2018.

Simpson being arrested on the M6

This was one of the biggest drug seizures by police in UK history.

The pair also sold heroin, cocaine, ketamine and cannabis to other gangs based as far afield as Scotland, London, North Wales, Cornwall, West Yorkshire, Cumbria, Manchester and Humberside.

Alan and John Tobin were ‘in command’, but recruited Leech as a conduit between them and the Cullens.

He also supplied specially adapted vehicles for the transportation of their goods.

Broughton’s primary role was to collect cash, but he was also used as muscle to enforce debts – making threats where required and reporting back to the brothers when problems had arisen.

Known as Robbie the Bear, the heavyweight MMA fighter - who has competed across the UK and abroad, including in the USA and Japan - is an imposing figure at 6ft2 and 18st6.

McQuillan meanwhile was responsible for couriering large amounts of cash across the UK.

The former pub landlord once won £90,000 on the lottery as part of a syndicate.

At its height, the gang was a ‘smooth, successfully profitable criminal organisation’.

But this changed when a series of operations took down the OCGS run by the Cullens, Oldroyd and Simpson.

During these operations, John Tobin was covertly witnessed meeting with Anthony Cullen and Broughton in a café at Kenyon Hall Farm – discussing drug dealing in the quaint rural surroundings.

Alan Tobin was seen speaking with Oldroyd and Simpson at a Costa coffee shop in Warrington about the supply of class As to gangs in Carlisle, Liverpool, Scunthorpe and Sussex.

As a result of the downfall of these linked mobs, large amounts of drugs and cash were seized by detectives – and they racked up large debts to the Tobins as a result.

This led to the brothers becoming more hands on.

On one occasion, Alan Tobin was involved in a heated argument with Anthony Cullen on the car park of a pub in Warrington.

The 'well respected' mental health nurse began dealing drugs on a small scale level in order to 'supplement his income', but became increasingly sucked deeper into the criminal underworld.

John Tobin meanwhile was shot last year after becoming indebted to others in the drugs trade himself.

Sentencing, judge Garrett Byrne said: "It became known that you, Alan and John Tobin, were intimately involved in the trafficking of drugs on a commercial scale.

"You were supplying multi kilo quantities of cocaine.

"Your operation was sophisticated and well organised.

"It involved the transportation of drugs to various parts of the UK - it was a business of a truly national scale which netted you vast sums of money and funded your lavish lifestyle.

"You were the leading figures in this operation.

"I'm satisfied that you were close to the original source and the importers of the drugs."

Turning to Broughton, the judge said: "You were the enforcer or debt collector of the Tobin brothers.

"You were a close and trusted associate of the brothers."

To Leech, he said: "You provided a discreet but crucial service."

Of McQuillan, judge Byrne added: "You worked for the Tobins as a delivery driver, knowingly transferring the proceeds.

"You transported between just under £4million to just over £5million.

"On any reasonable view, this was a very large-scale enterprise indeed."

Anthony Cullen was previously jailed for 27 years in January 2019 after the 33-year-old was convicted of conspiracy to supply cocaine and firearms.

Twin brother Leon Cullen was previously Warrington’s most wanted man after spending nearly two years on the run before his arrest in Dubai in January 2020.

He was extradited back to the UK earlier this year and admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and firearms last month.

Cullen is due to be sentenced here at Liverpool Crown Court next month.

Simpson, also aged 33 and of Warrington, was given 11 years behind bars in June 2019.

Oldroyd was caged for 14 years and three months after the 30-year-old built up his racket behind the façade of a successful car dealership.

Giving mitigation for St Helens man Broughton, Anthony Barraclough, told the hearing: "He was more than a money launderer, because he was close to the Tobins.

"All drug traffickers need somebody to launder the money, and they need someone to enforce.

"There is no evidence here of any violence by him.

"He was investigated, and there has been no further action.

"The fact that he's Robbie the Bear, an enormous guy, he becomes an enforcer.

"I invite you to give as much credit as you possibly can.

"He'd known the Tobins for 20 years as friends.

"The gyms he works and trains at, a lot of people like to associate with Robbie the Bear.

"They like to watch him on YouTube in his fights in various parts of the world.

"He became Robbie the big soft idiot because he allowed himself to become involved in these people.

"He was being used by them, sometimes he feels, without his knowledge."

Detective Inspector Rob Balfour said after the sentencing: “I’m delighted that the court has recognised the high levels of criminality that these defendants have been operating at for the years that they have.

“Our team have done an amazing job documenting this, and the court has clearly seen that – as have the defendants, because they all pleaded guilty and been rightly punished for what they’ve done.

“I’m personally made up that they’ve been punished in the way they have been because they’ve been dealing drugs all over the UK – not just Cheshire – for a long, long time.

“The fight against drugs will always go on, and we won’t be sat at home with a pipe and slippers thinking that we’ve done a great job and that’s the end of it.

“It’s well documented that drugs and violence go hand in hand.

“If people don’t get paid, there are usually consequence and when you’re talking about the level of drugs and money involved here the levels of violence go up.

“I’m in no doubt that John Tobin’s shooting was all part of this picture.

“A lot of the law-abiding members of the community don’t see the use of drugs, but they do see the violence and people getting hurt.

“I just want to thank the team for their dedication in securing these convictions.”