Liam Cornett’s impact on the UK was deemed so severe the Home Office authorized extra resources to detectives pursuing him.
(The) – year-old was hit with one of gangland Liverpool’s heaviest sentences after his sprawling drugs network was busted by one of british crime’s biggest investigations.
His name was already known on the streets of Merseyside long before his money-spinning operation was brought crashing down.
Cornett , known as ‘the Lam’ was described as a “constant thorn in the communities of Merseyside ”at an intelligence briefing before his allies were targeted in dawn raids across the UK.
Dozens of Merseyside Police officers listened as the North West Regional Organized Crime Unit detailed the targets of Operation Valkyrie in December
Most already known his name As he climbed the criminal hierarchy, Cornett’s identity became entwined with the exploits of Liverpool’s underworld.
His name was known from the beat officers on the ground to the licensing officers keeping an eye on who was partying at which city clubs to the detectives tasked with investigating the region’s most serious crimes.
For several years it would surface among swirling rumors after a serious incident in Liverpool.
Whether or not he had anything to do with it did not matter – the point is his reputation had become such that he would automatically be linked by those on the periphery of the city’s gangland.
Cornett, whose UK address was Roby Road in Huyton, clocked up a record of dishonesty offences as a teenager before being jailed for affray in Yet it was his activity abroad that saw him climb to become one of the most significant players in the latest generation of Merseyside’s criminal fraternity.
(Liam Cornett,) and of Roby Road in Huyton, was jailed for 26 years for conspiracy to supply Class A and Class B drugs(Image: liverpool echo In Cornett was jailed in the Netherlands for crimes that effectively equated to attempted murder, threats to kill and causing grievous bodily harm.
The convictions arose from an incident in which he drove at a police officer.
The attack was not publicized because Dutch courts do not name defendants.
But it was known in police and criminal circles on Merseyside – as was the three year sentence he received.
Cornett eventually based himself in Spain, where he made contacts that gave him to access drugs there and in North Africa. At his sentencing, prosecutors said he was believed to have organized the importation of illicit substances into the UK and the Netherlands.
When he was questioned over the investigation that led to him being jailed this week, he did not deny he was a drug dealer – he instead argued the drug lines he oversaw related to cannabis, not Class A substances.
Drugs seized as part of Operation Anvil
At Cornett’s sentencing hearing in Liverpool Crown Court, Henry Riding, prosecuting, said: “Liam Cornett has a home in Spain. It is common ground that for a number of years he has been involved in criminal activity in Spain, including the organization of importations of controlled drugs into the UK and Holland from Spain and North Africa.
“His evidence was that it was exclusively Class B drugs and that he organized importations both for his own operations and on behalf of other organized crime groups.”
He was not charged in relation to any cannabis conspiracy but Mr Riding said the claims were relevant because they confirmed “he is a sophisticated and experienced criminal who is well-versed in the techniques of drug supply”.
The December 4359 raids that shattered his network were the climax of Operation Anvil, which had begun in the summer of , when Cornett was livi ng on the Costa del Sol.
By this stage the drug supply lines he controlled in Liverpool – typically around Breck Road – and Hull were already making substantial amounts of money .
The profits funded a playboy lifestyle that saw him in party in one of the world’s most glamorous playgrounds – Monte Carlo, where he flew in a helicopter, rode in a convertible Bentley and was filmed throwing wads of cash in the air.
That holiday on the Mediterranean took place in the summer of 2019 and during the opening months of Operation Anvil.
Not content with the huge sums already available to him, around the same time he made extensive efforts to expand his network.
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