Dean Ellison got on with his life in Merseyside until his past caught up with him
A gang leader who forced vulnerable teenagers and addicts to peddle drugs in a park popular with children managed to evade a police probe for six years. Dean Ellison and his co-conspirator Gary Lee organised and controlled the supply of drugs in the South Park area of Bootle between June 3 and November 21 2017.
The gang’s Bootle operation sparked a covert police operation, codenamed Cicilian, and Lee and a number of other members of the gang were arrested and sentenced on November 30 2018. However, Ellison, who has been wanted since March 2018, managed to evade capture and was only arrested over six years later on May 16 2024.
Ellison, now 35, appeared before Liverpool Crown Court this morning, Thursday, September 12 after he had pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to supply class A, B and C drugs at an appearance at the same court on Monday. Ellison and Lee’s organised crime group supplied drugs in South Park, which lies between Stanley Road, Balliol Road and Hawthorne Road in Bootle.
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Liverpool Crown Court heard the organisation relied on vulnerable children, some as young as 14 and 15, and drug addicts to supply their illicit product. Ellison also ran a County Lines’ operation in Shrewsbury, while Lee and other members of the operation also sold drugs in Milton Keynes.
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Opening the sentencing case earlier this week, Henry Riding, prosecuting, told the court a big part of Lee and Ellison’s conspiracy was the creation of safe houses for the storing of drugs and the preparation of cannabis. The court heard the police operation identified three premises used by the network – on Miranda Street and Bianca Street, both in Bootle, and Stuart Grove in Kirkdale.
Reports in the ECHO following the sentencing of Lee heard police targeting the drug network raided the houses and found heroin and cannabis with a street value of between £250,000 and £370,000, as well as 93 parcels of amphetamines with a street value of £24,600.
Following the raids, carried out in March 2018, Merseyside Police arrested leading members of the criminal network including Lee. However, Ellison went underground and couldn’t be found. The court heard today that Ellison, who was 28 at the time of offending, continued to live in Merseyside despite his name and picture being circulated by the police.
The court heard during this time he committed no further offences, kicked his addiction to cannabis and settled down with a stable partner. His Honour Judge Neil Flewitt KC told the defendant today: “You got on with your life even though it was likely your past would catch up with you.”
However, Ellison, who was most recently of Whitewood Park in Fazakerley but appeared in court via video link to HMP Berwyn, was finally arrested when his house was raided following a manhunt by Merseyside Police’s fugitive team. He was charged with conspiring with others to supply class A drugs – cocaine and diamorphine; class B drugs – amphetamine and cannabis; and class C drug – buprenorphine, and appeared before the lower courts for the first time in May.
The court heard Ellison had no previous convictions related to the dealing of drugs. However, the ECHO previously reported that Ellison was handed a five-year sentence in 2010 after he tossed a loaded revolver over a garden fence and into a children’s paddling pool while running away from a police officer.
In mitigation, Ian Whitehurst, defending, told the court his client’s sister, who attended the sentencing carrying an oxygen tank, as she awaited a heart and lung transplant. Mr Whitehurst said she has already been refused surgery and if she was refused a second time there is nothing more the doctors can do. He told the court: “Mr Ellison has, in the period of time while at large, played a critical role in caring for her.”
Sentencing, Judge Flewitt told Ellison: “When I dealt with Gary Lee I determined it was not possible from the evidence to make an exact calculation of the amount of drugs during the time of the conspiracy. I am satisfied that this organised crime group led by Ellison and Lee were involved in more than 1kg of heroin and cocaine.
“Gary Lee played a leading role in the offending. Lee was directing, buying and selling on a commercial scale on the expectation of financial gain. You also played a leading role though there is some distinction. I accept that you have a slightly subordinate role in the drug hierarchy.
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“It is accepted Gary Lee dealt with the upstream supplier. Although you organised the sale of drugs in Shrewsbury the money went into a bank account controlled by Gary Lee’s partner. You were also not involved in the sale of drugs in Milton Keynes.”
Judge Flewitt told Ellison that he had more mitigation than Lee, but there were a number of aggravating features including an involvement in a County Lines operation that saw the exploitation of children. Bearing in mind Ellison’s guilty plea at the earliest stage, Judge Flewitt sentenced Ellison to eight years in prison. Ellison, who was supported by several family members, did not react as he learnt his fate.
Thirteen other people were previously sentenced in connection with the investigation in November 2018. These included Gary Lee, formerly of Whitewood Park in Fazakerley, jailed for 12 years; Ian Johnson, formerly of Trinity Road in Bootle, jailed for six years; Emma Mitchell, formerly of Whitewood Park in Fazakerley, jailed for four years; Jamie Hazlett and Joel Hazlett, both formerly of Richard Hesketh Drive, jailed for 16 months and two years, six months respectively; Angel Groom, formerly of Peel Road in Bootle, jailed for four years; Liam Brown, formerly of Othello Close in Bootle, jailed for four years; and Germaine Redmond, formerly of Southport Road in Bootle, jailed for 15 months.
Tony Wright, of Bianca Street in Bootle, was given an 18-month community order; Michael Hardie, of Patricia Avenue in Bidston, was given an 18-month community order; an unnamed 17-year-old boy was sentenced to a two year youth rehabilitation order and a 15-year-old boy was given a 12-month referral order.
