Britain's biggest supergrass has a 'target on his back for life' after helping to bring down criminal gangs

Former drug dealer 'Mr X' entered into an agreement with prosecutors to expose dangerous underworld members of Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) in exchange for a lenient sentence for his own offences.

Over the last five years the man, whose life is now "constantly at risk" has given evidence at six major gangland trials, codenamed Operation Lavender, where he spent 40 days in the witness box and assisted in securing theconvictions of 29 offenders.

The convictions mean prosecutors can now potentially claw back millions of pounds from the OCGs under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) legislation.

His explosive revelations mean he is now at a secret location.

Mr X, who had fallen into debt to dealers, had been kidnapped and tortured, feared he would be killed and knew the police were closing in, had to be honest about his own shocking life of crime to secure the deal and confessed to 23 offences including drug dealing, arson and burglary.

Teesside Crown Court heard those he gave evidence against received long jail terms, including a life sentence.

But Mr X, who would have been jailed for at least 14 years for his involvement, has now been given a suspended sentence.

Judge Deborah Sherwin told him: "I doubt there has ever been a case where an assisting offender has given so much evidence against so many offenders.

"It is believed the assistance you have provided is the greatest ever provided in this country.

"If your life wasn't in danger before, I am absolutely certain that it is now.

"These may be easy words to say but I am certain, in your case, the risk is genuine and cannot be under stated.

"Wherever you live you will spend your life constantly having to look over your should and in fear. I accept this."

Judge Sherwin added: "I have no doubt you will be actively and professionally sought by those who wish you harm.

"You will be forced to be vigilant for the rest of your life.

"The assistance you have given has been overwhelming.

"I am sure your life will be constantly at risk, wherever you are."

Judge Sherwin said his sentence, in comparison to the OCG accomplices he informed on, may seem at "extreme" contrast.

But the judge said: "The reality is, if not for people like you and arrangement such as this, many serious and dangerous offenders would not have been brought to justice and this is recognised.

"Everyone must bear in mind the very real risk to your personal safety these arrangements pose."

He was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, suspended for two years.

Prosecutor Richard Herrmann told the court Mr X's life of crime had "spiralled dangerously out of control" after he fell deep into debt to dangerous dealers.

He initially acted as a Covert Human Intelligence Source (CHIS) and supplied information to the police between November 2015 and April 2016 but the agreement was terminated as it was deemed too dangerous for him tocontinue.

In September 2016 Mr X, who had previous convictions for motoring offences and drugs possession, was approached by the police with a view to becoming an assisting offender and entered into a formal agreement under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA).

By then, he was already charged with involvement in drug dealing, which his confession to was just the start of five years of court cases that laid bare the lives of those involved in high level criminal activity.

During 115 recorded interviews, resulting in 10,000 pages of transcripts, he told detectives everything he knew about the criminal underworld.

Mr Herrmann told the court: "He has repeatedly asserted that at the point of entering the scheme he saw it as his only way out of his life a crime which had spiralled dangerously out of control, bringing onto him and his familythreat to life."

Mr Herrmann said Mr X had previously lived a "relatively normal life" before he started dealing drugs while building up significant debts he could never pay back.

He added: "Although he did at times enjoy some of the trappings associated with large-scale drug dealing, like nice cars and expensive holidays, he has maintained throughout that he never reached a point where he was makingsignificant profit from his years of drug dealing.

"Rather, he was falling further and further into debt; to use his words he was 'robbing Peter to pay Paul'.

"Analysis, by the Crown, based upon the minutely contested testimony by him and the independent POCA process, all unused material and national and international research, supports this assertion.

"Indeed, it is apparent his dealing spiralled in a mass of unpaid debt and utterly unachievable demands for re-payment.

"Ironically, the independent supporting evidence shows him to have been an easy target for exploitation by other dealers, somebody upon whom they were able to offload poor product at inflated prices and make unreasonable demands for payment.

"His operation appears to have lacked the enforcement arm that might have counterbalanced such demands.

"As is well known to the courts, being in debt in the underworld of large-scale drug dealing is not a good place to be.

" Although in that position by his own choices and criminality things turned very sour for (Mr X), who was repeatedly a victim of serious violence and threats.

"A catalogue of serious assaults are independently verifiable and undeniably true."

Mr Herrmann said in July 2014 Mr X was lured to an address and brutally attacked.

He added: "He was so badly beaten that he suffered life threatening injuries and had to have his spleen surgically removed."

The court heard in 2015 Mr X became involved in a conspiracy to supply cocaine with David Gloyne, 37, of Plawsworth, Durham, and Yvan Nikolic, of Yvan Nikolic, 56, of Rue Domat, Paris.

Having put himself in debt to Gloyne, in August 2015 Mr X embarked upon the disastrous "folly" of attempting to recover 50kg of cocaine from a container on Tilbury Docks in order to clear that debt, which failed.

He then sought to steal 27kg from one of Gloyne's safehouses.

Mr Herrmann added: ""His reward for having done so was to be the victim of a protracted kidnap, false imprisonment and torture in the course of which he was repeatedly tied up, he was threatened that he would have his testicles removed with pliers, threatened that his knee caps would be broken with a hammer and a gun, probably an imitation, was wielded.

"He believed that he was going to be killed."

Mr Herrmann said "the breadth and depth of the assistance provided is on a wholly unprecedented and exceptional scale, beyond anything previously undertaken in this jurisdiction".

He added: "The assistance given to the police and prosecution is not limited to those cases in which he has given direct evidence but has also resulted in the initiation of other investigations and assisted in other ongoinginvestigations in which many other criminals have been brought to justice."

As a direct result of the information Mr X fed to the detectives, police operations named Sidra, Sidra 2, Washington, Everest, Burton and Catwick were launched and resulted in 29 convictions.

Criminals received double-figure jail terms and one received a life sentence.

They include Andrew Blake who was jailed for 14 years, Alan Smart who received a life sentence, Yvan Nikolic who was jailed for 21 years, Gloyne jailed for 21 years and Tony Trott jailed for 18 years.

Also involved in the efforts to retrieve the cocaine from Tilbury Docks were Anthony Sweeney, 34, of Crake Way, Washington, who admitted conspiring to supply class A drugs, kidnap, false imprisonment and assault and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, and Benjamin Cahill, 30, of Doncaster, who previously admitted conspiracy to supply class A drugs and was sentenced to five years and three months imprisonment.

Mr X's lawyer told the court: "Never before or after has there been such a prolific success story for the undermining of organised crime."

He added: "He could suffer the consequences of the 250 years in prison.

"The repercussions for people like him are not theoretical, we are not in the realms of the movies, it is not made up.

"The reality is he is in danger and will forever be in danger.

"One of the consequences of his decision to assist the Crown in this way is for the rest of his life he will have a target on his back, this is not a theoretical target at all."

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