Drugs gang dressed as police to raid cannabis farms

A drugs gang posed for photos of themselves dressed as police officers before raiding other criminals' cannabis farms.

Lancashire Police said they found the images when they raided the gang's base in Blackpool.

The nine-strong outfit had also threatened to firebomb a woman's house when a delivery went missing.

They were given jail sentences ranging from 15 years to a year for crimes including drug dealing, blackmail and burglary.

Preston Crown Court heard the "Ozone" Organised Crime Group (OCG) had supplied drugs in Blackpool across the Fylde coast since 2021 using the app Telegram to advertise their drugs before selling them via Whatsapp.

The messages included maps for the couriers' drugs deliveries.

Police said a woman in Poulton-le-Fylde suffering a terrifying ordeal when gang member Mark Kirkwood and two others armed wearing masks and brandishing a machete and baseball bat stormed her home as her children slept upstairs in March 2024.

They wanted to know "where the weed was" and threatened to firebomb the house if it was not returned within 20 minutes.

When police arrived they found an opened cardboard box in the front garden with a tracker tag and an invoice addressed to a different Blackpool woman from a man in the USA.

The woman's partner had disposed of the empty box as a favour to a friend, the court heard.

Five months later, police raided a warehouse in Whitegate Driver, Blackpool with rooms where cannabis was stored, produced and packaged.

A phone with messages about drug deals between Kirkwood and gang leader Joshua Shaw was found.

When Kirkwood and Shaw were arrested a phone with a photo of Kirkwood in police uniform was discovered, and another phone showed gang member Cole Muir in a high-visibility police jacket.

It emerged the gang had raided cannabis farms dressed as police officers.

Shaw, 33, of no fixed abode, admitted conspiracy to supply cannabis and importation of cannabis and was convicted of blackmail and sentenced to 15 years.

Kirkwood, 29, of no fixed address, was convicted of assisting an OCG and blackmail and admitted conspiracy to supply drugs and conspiracy to produce drugs as well as conspiracy to commit burglary.

He was jailed for eight years and six months.

Muir, 27, of Bela Grove, Blackpool, admitted supplying cannabis and conspiracy to commit burglary and was sentenced to 42 weeks.

Six other members were also jailed.

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