Brothers Alan and John Tobin masterminded a sophisticated drug operation that supplied hundreds of kilos of narcotics to gangs across the UK – but their empire came tumbling down
A cocaine kingpin who plotted a violent drug war with his brother was shot outside his own home after he fell into debt with a figure known as “The Banker”. Alan and John Tobin supplied hundreds of kilos of narcotics to infamous gangs across the UK.
With ex-UFC star Robbie ‘The Bear’ Broughton as their “enforcer”, the brothers lived “luxurious lifestyles” off the suffering of others. However, their Liverpool drug empire crumbled when police intercepted a van transporting £20m worth of cocaine up the M6.
The loss of the massive 90% consignment resulted in John being shot over debts to an enigmatic accountant. In desperation, the brothers concocted a savage plot to have a father and son shot on their doorsteps by gunmen disguised as pizza delivery drivers.
Additionally, Alan colluded with an alleged gangland boss to have another adversary “carved up” in prison. The two men had dreamed of making millions from their illegal business.
Yet, they found themselves embroiled in conflict involving some of the north west’s most notorious gangland figures, reports the Liverpool Echo.
The pair ran a “sophisticated, highly profitable and well-organised” operation, flooding the UK with colossal amounts of cocaine, heroin, ketamine and cannabis. Alan, a former worker in various manual jobs, cunningly disguised his criminal life behind his role as a respected mental health nurse at Rathbone hospital’s low secure unit.
In the shadows, he was “CapeRocket” on EncroChat, with his brother John operating as “SlightDrake”. From 2016 to 2020, they arranged for couriers driving vehicles with hidden compartments to transport drugs.
Their clients included the notorious armed Cullen brothers from Warrington, and a gang run by Lee Stoba from his prison cell.
The Tobins recruited ex-UFC fighter Broughton as their enforcer; a hulking figure who went by “NovaBear” on EncroChat, tasked with squeezing unpaid debts and collecting cash. A chunk of the illicit profits were funnelled into Canary Wharf businesses and shell companies.
Alan’s wife, Helen Hartley, even had up to £150,000 of the dirty money flowing through her bank account.
In a significant blow to their empire, a substantial drug haul was intercepted.
The drug seizure
Alan and John Tobin’s drug empire crumbled when they tasked Jamie Simpson to ferry a £20m cocaine haul from Kent to Warrington. The plot was foiled in the UK’s biggest-ever on-land cocaine bust when cops stopped Simpson’s van on the M6 near Knutsford, seizing 186kg of the class A drug in 2018.
This massive hit would spell doom for the brothers; even though John’s DNA was found on the narcotics later aiding the police in his prosecution, their woes went beyond the law.
The EncroChat hack early that year exposed their pleas for help to a figure known as “The Banker”, a touted female financial whizz in the illegal drugs market.
‘The Banker’ debt
John was reportedly in debt to a figure known as “The Banker”, and it was suggested that he sell some of his valuables to settle the debt. On February 6, 2020, John Tobin, then 39, had been shot on a Prescot housing estate.
His lawyer, Jason Smith, revealed that the shooting was part of a series of threats and intimidation from higher-ups in the drug trade. By April, the Tobins were more involved in their drug conspiracies due to several associates being incarcerated following the M6 seizure.
EncroChat data led Cheshire Police to review old evidence involving the Tobins and their past interactions with gang leaders. The messages showed the men supplying various drugs.
Referring to losing their contacts, there was a comment: “we wud b millionaires by now’.”
On the night of April 24, 2020, a man named David Barnes was shot in the leg at his Warrington home. He wasn’t the intended target of a bogus takeaway driver who had knocked on his door and shouted “pizza delivery”.
Mr Barnes was shot because the gunman was hunting for his stepson – heroin dealer Liam Byrne Jr. The shooter was soldier Aaron Bretherton. However, the serving soldier wasn’t acting alone – he was part of a brutal conspiracy that could be traced back to the desperate Tobin brothers.
The attack was “part of a dispute over who controlled the movement of drugs in the Warrington area”.
Fake pizza man
EncroChat texts revealed an alleged gangland boss had been asking criminals for information about Byrne Jr and his dad Liam Byrne Sr and had turned to John.
John sent over an image from a directory enquiries website containing the name, address and phone number of Byrne Jr’s then girlfriend. The names, images and personal details of other potential targets were also exchanged.
On April 22, the Manchester man told Alan: “I’m gonna do all them soon … liam burns … been trying get there address. Get me details I fix these muppets .. There two burns dad and son”.
Alan revealed his desperation in a message, saying: “Same here bro stressed to f*** with bills no c*** pays chasing me tail all the time rats av put us in a hole, this virus b*****ks has slowed stuff down, is lismburns working again. I’ll get there addresses and send them over, I’ve met the two burnes.”
He went on to supply a Manchester contact with images of the father and son targets, their home addresses, satellite snapshots of their residence, and their vehicle registration numbers. Alan sought the help of an associate referred to as “Rob”, who used the alias “NovaBear”, believed to be Broughton, to acquire the remaining details.
However, there was no indication that Broughton knew of the actual shooting and he faced no charges related to it. Later, Alan questioned his brother if “Rob” had come through with Byrne Jnr’s address; John confirmed and mentioned that he had passed the information to the man from Manchester.
John also agreed to join his older sibling for a scouting mission, although he never seemed conscious of any looming violence. Bretherton fired four shots at Mr Barnes at his habitat in Poplars Avenue before making his getaway in a Transit van driven by Morris, along with accomplice Fitzpatrick.
As they escaped in a vehicle sourced from Morris’ place of employment, Morris checked online for news on the assault, searching terms like “shooting in Warrington”. A disclosed message later had Alan putting forth gratitude, saying ‘I will owe you the world bro carve the c*** up’.
Later that night another disguised gunman sought to target Charlie Cullen – the dad of Leon and Anthony Cullen, whose own feared drug gang had boasted access to weapons including an AK-47 rifle, pump-action shotgun, automatic pistols and revolvers. The Cullen brothers were later jailed for 22-and-a-half years and 27 years respectively.
The gunman posing as a pizza man attended a property on Sinclair Avenue in Warrington, owned by the Cullens’ dad but rented to tenants. When the gunman heard Mr Cullen didn’t live there he left. In the aftermath of the shooting in Poplars Avenue, the Manchester man sent Alan a screenshot of a news story about it and told Alan to “keep low”. Alan agreed, replying: “Keep it to just us.”
The plot thickened when their focus switched to a man known as “Alvin”, speculated in court to be the gang’s debtor Jamie Oldroyd, whose debt of £1.5m placed him on a gangland target list. This liverpudlian vendetta escalated with disturbing threats to “take his eyes” and chillingly to “kill his mum”, casting dark shadows across the city’s underworld.
Oldroyd ran a car lease firm as a front for his drug trafficking operation, using 17 different vehicles to transport cocaine across the country. He was once caught on camera with so much cash that he needed machines to count it all.
Cheshire Police’s Operation Dreadnaught targeted Oldroyd and led to the arrest of his associate Simpson on the M6 with the drugs. However, Oldroyd soon found himself in deep financial trouble.
Businesses linked to his family were petrol bombed, their windows smashed, and a family home was shot at. A compound where he stored Mercedes cars was broken into and the vehicles damaged in a campaign believed to have been orchestrated from Merseyside.
The threat was so severe that police issued Oldroyd and his family with Osman letters – official warnings that they were in danger of being murdered. Despite Oldroyd being sentenced to 14 years and three months in prison for conspiring to supply cocaine, the threats continued.
Simpson, 31, received an 11-and-a-half-year sentence for the same charge.
Glock seized
Following a shooting in Warrington, the men directly involved were quickly apprehended by the police.
Morris, from Fifth Avenue in Fazakerley, was arrested when his van was stopped by police in Southport two days after the incident, while Bretherton and Fitzpatrick were arrested at their homes in May 2020.
A Glock 9mm handgun was seized from the extractor fan over the cooker in Bretherton’s Netherfield Road South, Everton apartment. Alongside the firearm, eight live 9mm bullets and a magazine were stashed in the bathroom fan.
Also, detected on a designer Prada jacket and a rucksack within the flat were traces of gunpowder, with a haul of £5,000 in cash and a smoke bomb being found. Furthermore, an extra stash of £4,000 was unearthed at Fitzpatrick’s Norris Green property on Eldersfield Road.
Despite the fact that the captured Glock shared the model of the weapon fired at Mr Barnes, forensic investigation confirmed it wasn’t the same pistol. Nevertheless, capture of EncroChat dialogues disclosed the history of another Austrian firearm.
The shooting left Mr Barnes with severe injuries, including shattered tibia and fibula.
Tobins in court
The Tobin brothers were instrumental in spreading pain and misery across the UK, from fuelling addiction to class A drugs to orchestrating an attack that saw an innocent man shot at his doorstep. However, they and many of their associates are now behind bars.
Between March and May 2020, they used EncroChat to discuss deals involving approximately 73kg of heroin, 83kg of cocaine, 57kg of ketamine, and 78kg of cannabis, with an estimated street value of up to £20m. Alan Tobin, formerly of Regency Park in Widnes, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in April 2021 for his role in the drug plots.
His brother John, formerly of Manor Road in Prescot, received a sentence of 19 years and eight months. In September of the same year, Alan received an additional eight-year prison term for conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm with intent to both Liam Byrne Jnr and Snr.
Alan was ultimately sentenced to 28 years in prison. John received an additional two and a half years for participating in the activities of an organised crime group, increasing his term to over 22 years.
They will serve 14 and 11 years in prison respectively. Alan’s wife was also imprisoned for her role in her husband’s criminal activities.
For possessing criminal property, mum-of-two Hartley was jailed for nine months. “Dangerous” hitman Bretherton received a 22-year prison sentence, with an extended five years on licence.
He will have to serve nearly 15 years behind bars before he is eligible for parole. Getaway driver Morris was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Judge Driver described Fitzpatrick, who was also being sentenced for ketamine and cannabis plots in addition to the shooting plot, as “dangerous”. He was sentenced to 26 years in prison, with an extended five years on licence, meaning he now faces just over 17 years behind bars before he can request his release.