BRITAIN’S largest ever legal high operation, housed in a disused Farnworth mill, made its masterminds £3 million — and an incredibly lavish lifestyle.
Paula White and her gang sold more than 90,000 products out of Drake Mill — “Area 51” as they referred to it — to 18,500 customers worldwide.
The business had given White a life of luxury, with building work for an extension and swimming pool ongoing when police raided her lavish £1 million house in Stafford Road, Eccles.
She had also bought an £800,000 villa in southern Spain from the business, as well as designer clothes, and £25,000 Bang and Olufsen TVs.
But that lifestyle lay in ruins when police raided the factory in May, 2013.
The huge mephedrone factory, which “shocked” the officers who discovered it, was rumbled when police hundreds of miles away in Jersey noticed that legal highs sent to the island had come from post offices in Bolton.
The products were sold on website Wide Mouth Frogs and purported to be legal despite police finding 77 per cent of them to contain illegal drugs after buying them online.
Police found no evidence that the drugs were ever tested for safety, and some have had deadly consequences.
Grant Wooldridge, from Newbury, died aged 46 from an overdose after taking drugs at a music festival in July, 2012. The coroner found evidence the products may had been bought from Wide Mouth Frogs.
When police raided the factory they found one of the most “sophisticated” and highly organised operations they had ever seen, with White employing about a dozen people in the huge industrial unit.
White, aged 46, ran the operation with her former civil partner Netta Hymanson the second-in-command.
About 25 kilos of the drugs, sold under names such as Heaven, Magic Crystals and OK, were found in the raid, and found packaging machinery drums of mixing agent, storage rooms, freezer areas and a kitchen.
About £2.5million was made by the gang through Wide Mouth Frogs, with the rest of the cash earned through other sites they ran.
Police believe they sold more than 250 kilos of substances after White started the business in 2009. It gathered pace in the months before the police raid.
Officers from the North West’s organised crime unit Titan started investigating the group in January, 2013 after being tipped off by police in Jersey.
Rudie Chiu, aged 26, of Hornbeam Way, Manchester, ran White’s websites from 2011, helping her promote the sale of the drugs and even used his grandmother’s home as a delivery address for her imported chemicals. He was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years, must do 300 hours unpaid work and will be subject to an 8pm to 6am curfew for four months.
The same sentence was also handed to Sheena Jessop, aged 47, of Grants Lane Ramsbottom, who described herself as the “Willy Wonka of the drugs world” and was employed in an administrative role in the business by White, her former partner.
Aniello Della-Croce, aged 30, of Bowker Vale Gardens,who worked at White’s offices in Cheetham Hill, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years, must do 250 hours unpaid work and will be subject to a midnight to 6am curfew for four months.
White’s sister-in-law, 44-year-old Michaela Doyle was described by the judge as having a “unattractive and arrogant manner” who had been content for her own son to work at the drugs factory.
Doyle, of Croft Street, Salford, was given a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for two years, will do 200 hours unpaid work and will be subject to a three month 8pm to 6am curfew.
Det Supt Jason Hudson, from Titan, said: “When Jersey Police came to us with their intelligence, we did not have a good idea of the extent of the legal highs available. We saw it as an excellent opportunity to get a greater understanding of the legal high market. We were pretty shocked by what we found and and the very high proportion of controlled drugs.
“The other thing that shocked us was the sheer number of registered customers on Wide Mouth Frogs, about 18,500 registered customers, which was a lot of people.
"This group were very organised and professional, and had placed great emphasis on customer service.
"This gang did not fit with the traditional image of an organised crime group but they made a lot of money.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article