Drug 'top dog' caught fleeing police raids in taxi

Ninedrug dealers have been jailed after an arrest that was filmed from a police helicopter.

Footage captured two of the ringleaders being pulled from the back of a taxi that was boxed in by unmarked police cars on the A617 near Newark in Nottinghamshire.

Detectives said Andrew Fitzgerald, 35, who was known by the nickname "Top Dog", had tried to flee the country after officers raided several "stash houses".

At one address, drugs were found hidden inside a teddy bear and evidence was recovered from a phone that was dropped into a tin of paint.

Over three days this week, 15 people were sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court for their roles in the operation.

Nottinghamshire Police said the investigation began when phones were seized which identified supply lines "flooding" communities with heroin and crack cocaine.

Five mobile lines advertised drugs and took orders from Eastwood, Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Sutton-in-Ashfield, in Nottinghamshire, and Skegness in Lincolnshire.

Det Sgt Adam Rose, who led the operation, said Fitzgerald "orchestrated" the movement of those drugs, between January 2023 and July 2024.

Rose said: "He had people that would go out and identify addresses where the drugs could be cut, identify other addresses where they could be sold... people referred to him as the 'Top Dog'."

The net closed in after the police knife crime team caught one of his lieutenants, Corey Graham, carrying crack cocaine, more than £1,200 in cash and a drugs phone.

That phone operated Eastwood's "ST" drugs line from Graham's then home at Raymede Drive, on the Bestwood Estate, in Nottingham.

Fitzgerald was seen collecting clothes from his house on Leybourne Drive nearby, before police began coordinated raids at several addresses in Nottingham and Kirkby.

Rose said Fitzgerald fled in a taxi with his sidekick Richardson, because they knew their own cars could be tracked through number plate recognition cameras.

"Their plan was to go out to Skegness, we believe, and hide in a caravan for a couple of days whilst they were able to get things in place, cash in place, to book flights to flee the country," Rose said.

Two of their drugs lines were run from a property on Glenside Road, in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, where Andrew Cox lived with Claire Lidgett.

As their home was raided, Cox tried to destroy evidence by dropping two drug phones into tins full of paint.

Police said they were storing "significant" quantities of heroin and crack - and some was found in bags, hidden inside a teddy bear.

That search also recovered a list of dealers, a crossbow and arrows, an air pistol and several knives.

The Sutton and Kirkby drug lines were controlled by Nathan Sharp, who was staying at an address nearby on Forest Street.

There, police seized more cocaine with deal bags, and several thousand pounds in cash.

Sharp went on the run and evaded capture for 10 months.

He was eventually arrested after setting up a new drug dealing operation in Skegness on the Lincolnshire coast.

The police operation, in July 2024, seized drugs with a street value of £125,000, but Rose believes that is the tip of the iceberg.

"The group had been working for months and potentially years, so £125,000 is probably a snapshot of daily business," he added.

"They collected an arsenal of weapons that they were prepared to use in order to facilitate their drug dealing empire, extremely dangerous."

Andrew Fitzgerald, 35, of Leybourne Drive, Bestwood, Nottingham, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Sean Richardson, 34, of Green Lane, Clifton, Nottingham, was sentenced to eight years in prison for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Aaron Miller, 35, of Vernon Road, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Nathan Sharp, 34, formerly of Forest Street, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, was sentenced to eight years in prison for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Andrew Cox, 41, of Glenside Road, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, was sentenced to eight years in prison for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Corey Graham, 24, of Hillington Rise, Bestwood, Nottingham, was given a six-year prison sentence for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and a separate case of supplying of Class A drugs in Lincolnshire .

Craig Beeson, 41, of Cheltenham Street, Nottingham, was sentenced to eight years and nine months in prison for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and causing grievous bodily harm.

Tyrone Shand, 38, of Linby Street, Bulwell, Nottingham, was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and Class B drugs.

Chadwyck Walton, 31, of Merchant Street, Bulwell, Nottingham, was sentenced to four and a half years for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Five women and another man received non-custodial sentences:

Keenan Williams, 36, of Belconnen Road, Bestwood, Nottingham, was given a sentence of 18 months, suspended for two years, for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Jaime Buxton, 26, of Harcourt Street, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, was given an 18-month sentence, suspended for two years, and a community rehabilitation order for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Stacey Beeson, 39, of Bancroft Street, Bulwell, Nottingham, received an 18-month sentence, suspended for two years, for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Yvette Davis, 56, of Laurel Grove, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, and a community rehabilitation order for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Claire Lidgett, 41, of Glenside, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, was given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and a community rehabilitation order for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Temika Morris, 29, of Merchant Street, Bulwell, Nottingham was given a community rehabilitation order for permitting the use of a premises for supply of Class A and Class B drugs.

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