Family behind £1.4m drugs cartel are jailed for more than 50 years after ... trends now

A drug dealing family have been jailed for more than 50 years after the mother was found by police sitting next to nearly £500,000 in cash on her bed.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Ian Shacklady, 67, his partner Gillian Melville, 66, and her son Alan Causer, 45, traded Class A drugs worth millions of pounds from their homes in Skelmersdale, Lancashire.

At least 790lb (360kg) of cocaine and 55lb (25kg) of heroin were supplied by the family.

Officers discovered nearly half a million pounds when they raided the home of Ian Shacklady and Gillian Melville - catching the crooked mother red-handed while she was sitting next to the huge pile of cash.

The organised crime group, led by son Alan Causer, was locked up for a combined total of more than 50 years today.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the joint probe by the NCA and Merseyside Police led to their house on Marchbank Road in Skelmersdale being searched on September 15 2021.

Melville was found 'sitting in a bed in one of the bedrooms with neatly stacked piles of cash on the bed to one side of her' totalling £481,375.

Henry Riding, prosecuting, described the 66-year-old as having been 'caught red-handed' with 'multiple bags containing large quantities of cash on the floor at her feet'.

Also, the fingerprints of John Germaine, another conspirator, were found on a number of the bags of cash.

Four kilos of cannabis with an estimated street value of £40,000 was also discovered, as were two 'ledgers' which described in meticulous detail the record of their drug dealing activities.

The ledgers described the movement of more than £1.4m in cash over the previous few months.

Causer's fingerprints were present on these books, with Mr Riding adding: 'They indicated that the half a million pounds recovered from Mr Shacklady and Ms Melville's house was, if not just the tip of an iceberg, only a small proportion of the monies generated by the activities of this organised crime group.'

Officers searched Shacklady's white Peugeot Partner van, which was parked across the street.

They found a 'fairly sophisticated system' within the rear of the vehicle below the floorboards consisting of a hidden switch which revealed a secret compartment for stashing illicit goods.

Also, automatic number plate recognition cameras captured the van 'travelling all over the north of England' including trips to Huyton, Manchester, Grimsby, Derby, Nottingham and the Barnard Castle, Bishop Auckland and Darlington areas of County Durham.

Police then visited Germaine's storage unit on Ringtail Road in Burscough on September 28 2021 and found 9kg of 'high purity' cocaine.

The 35-year-old, of Holt Drive in Ormskirk, previously received nine years and two months in relation to this seizure in May 2022 after being convicted of possession of the class A drug and cannabis with intent to supply and possession of criminal property.

Another defendant, Daniel Heeley, 31, was identified via surveillance undertaken as part of the operation.

Heeley of Rylstone Drive in Heysham, Lancashire was known as 'Morc' in the gang's ledgers - which refers to the Morecambe area where he was based and had a safe house.

Heeley was said to have been 'supplied class A drugs in wholesale, kilogram amounts' by his co-conspirators, with the same van having travelled to the seaside town on 14 occasions.

Shacklady gave a prepared statement during police interview claiming 'he had allowed a person who he wasn't prepared to name to store items at his address, believing it was only money' and that he 'had no idea there were drugs as well'.

The 67-year-old also said that Melville 'had no involvement in the matter'.

When Germaine was interviewed, he 'began by saying 'I knew this was coming''.

He also said he was in debt to 'persons in Liverpool connected with someone whose jaw he had broken in a fight in a nightclub' and then 'began making drug and

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