John and Rob Dawes were the generals of the Dawes Cartel, based in the Mansfield and Sutton-in-Ashfield areas.
John and Rob Dawes were the generals of the Dawes Cartel, based in the Mansfield and Sutton-in-Ashfield areas. They ran a multi-million-pound drugs empire from a small house in Tudor Street, Sutton-in-Ashfield.
Like his pal Colin Gunn, John Dawes eschewed life within the legitimate working world. From 1991 until his arrest in 2005, there is no evidence that John Dawes did a single day's legitimate work.
He lived almost exclusively, according to his own accounts, as a jobless man claiming benefits.
His hot-headed brother Rob was operating from Spain from 2002 onwards, organising shipments of cannabis resin and cocaine, while the rest of the gang organised wholesale deliveries of amphetamines and heroin, mainly from Liverpool and Runcorn.
Until 2001, they operated almost undetected. Then police in Nottinghamshire launched Operation Normality with the help of the National Crime Squad and customs investigators.
By 2003, it would receive additional resources with the sanctioning of Operation Starburst by law enforcement agencies in London.
It found that the Dawes Cartel was made up of three generals: John and Rob Dawes and Gary Hardy, another Mansfield man whose father had been the high up the command chain of a Midlands Hell's Angels chapter.
By 2001, this close-knit group was importing so many drugs that they had a backlog, so they began to bury large amounts underground in coded locations in woodland in Sutton-in-Ashfield.
On 1 June 2001, investigators made their first major inroad into the gang when they discovered a drugs production unit at Colwick. They were staggered by the scale of the operation and three middle-men were arrested.
John and Rob Dawes flew out to Malaga with some haste the same month.
John flew back to the UK in September 2001.
Police just kept watching.
A National Crime Squad investigation revealed links between large-scale drugs shipments flowing from Spain, Holland and Belgium and the cartels runs by the Dawes family and the Bestwood Cartel.
All roads were leading back to Nottinghamshire and southern Spain, where Rob Dawes was still holed up.
Officers began to take a closer look at the financial transactions of the gang. They found more than £8.5m going through their hands between November 2002 and June 2003. In addition, members of the gang were logged on more than 40 flights coming in and out of Malaga and Amsterdam over a two-and-a-half year period.
Arrests began to take place in 2003 and, crucially, four runners were 'turned', giving detailed accounts of how the Cartel operated.
One told how he had been beaten senseless by John Dawes with a baseball bat on two occasions.
By late spring 2003, the Dawes Cartel began to unravel as John Dawes himself was arrested. Having lost many of his troops, he had been forced to get hands-on. On 23 May 2003, the police saw his fellow boss Gary Hardy driving a black Porsche near Sutton-in-Ashfield.
It pulled up and John Dawes got into the vehicle for a short time and then got out with a carrier bag. Officers arrested him and found the bag contained £14,000. Other members of the gang were also rounded up, including John's father Arthur Dawes, his girlfriend, Rebecca Bridge and Ryan Smith, who had been acting as one of John Dawes's lieutenants.
Over nine weeks, a jury heard details of how John and Rob Dawes headed a ruthless organisation making more than £1m a month from the illegal drugs trade.
John Dawes, his father Arthur, Rebecca Bridge and Ryan Smith were all convicted for their parts in the operation. John Dawes was jailed for 24 years, Smith for 14 years, Arthur Dawes for eight and Bridge for four.
Rob Dawes and Gary Hardy remained at large, but police felt sure it would only be a matter of time before they tripped up.
No sooner had police dealt with John Dawes than they began to set their sights on Hardy.
Hardy went to trial in June 2008 accused of conspiring to supply heroin, cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis. The trial was held under the tightest security ever seen at Nottingham Crown Court.
One of the witnesses was Jonathan Guest, one of the gang's lieutenants. He had pleaded guilty in 2002 to conspiracy to supply amphetamines and cannabis and possessing £150,000 of heroin.
He was still serving his twelve-year sentence in 2006 when he decided to approach a solicitor and then got in touch with Crimestoppers.
Guest told the courtroom how he was kidnapped and 'moulded' into the organisation, sent on drug runs and left in charge of the amphetamine factory in Colwick.
Hardy himself had a fleet of luxury cars which could not have come from his legitimate business dealings.
In August 2008, after a three-month trial, the jury came back with guilty verdicts against Hardy. The forty-five-year-old was found guilty of conspiracy to supply heroin and amphetamines, money-laundering and possession of criminal property. He was jailed for twenty years.
Rob Dawes was eventually arrested in Dubai and, at the time of writing, awaits extradition to Spain, where he is due to face charges in connection with a £14m cocaine haul. The Dutch police and Notts Police still want to talk to him about drug shipments and a murder.
Like his pal Colin Gunn, John Dawes eschewed life within the legitimate working world. From 1991 until his arrest in 2005, there is no evidence that John Dawes did a single day's legitimate work.
He lived almost exclusively, according to his own accounts, as a jobless man claiming benefits.
His hot-headed brother Rob was operating from Spain from 2002 onwards, organising shipments of cannabis resin and cocaine, while the rest of the gang organised wholesale deliveries of amphetamines and heroin, mainly from Liverpool and Runcorn.
Until 2001, they operated almost undetected. Then police in Nottinghamshire launched Operation Normality with the help of the National Crime Squad and customs investigators.
By 2003, it would receive additional resources with the sanctioning of Operation Starburst by law enforcement agencies in London.
It found that the Dawes Cartel was made up of three generals: John and Rob Dawes and Gary Hardy, another Mansfield man whose father had been the high up the command chain of a Midlands Hell's Angels chapter.
By 2001, this close-knit group was importing so many drugs that they had a backlog, so they began to bury large amounts underground in coded locations in woodland in Sutton-in-Ashfield.
On 1 June 2001, investigators made their first major inroad into the gang when they discovered a drugs production unit at Colwick. They were staggered by the scale of the operation and three middle-men were arrested.
John and Rob Dawes flew out to Malaga with some haste the same month.
John flew back to the UK in September 2001.
Police just kept watching.
A National Crime Squad investigation revealed links between large-scale drugs shipments flowing from Spain, Holland and Belgium and the cartels runs by the Dawes family and the Bestwood Cartel.
All roads were leading back to Nottinghamshire and southern Spain, where Rob Dawes was still holed up.
Officers began to take a closer look at the financial transactions of the gang. They found more than £8.5m going through their hands between November 2002 and June 2003. In addition, members of the gang were logged on more than 40 flights coming in and out of Malaga and Amsterdam over a two-and-a-half year period.
Arrests began to take place in 2003 and, crucially, four runners were 'turned', giving detailed accounts of how the Cartel operated.
One told how he had been beaten senseless by John Dawes with a baseball bat on two occasions.
By late spring 2003, the Dawes Cartel began to unravel as John Dawes himself was arrested. Having lost many of his troops, he had been forced to get hands-on. On 23 May 2003, the police saw his fellow boss Gary Hardy driving a black Porsche near Sutton-in-Ashfield.
It pulled up and John Dawes got into the vehicle for a short time and then got out with a carrier bag. Officers arrested him and found the bag contained £14,000. Other members of the gang were also rounded up, including John's father Arthur Dawes, his girlfriend, Rebecca Bridge and Ryan Smith, who had been acting as one of John Dawes's lieutenants.
Over nine weeks, a jury heard details of how John and Rob Dawes headed a ruthless organisation making more than £1m a month from the illegal drugs trade.
John Dawes, his father Arthur, Rebecca Bridge and Ryan Smith were all convicted for their parts in the operation. John Dawes was jailed for 24 years, Smith for 14 years, Arthur Dawes for eight and Bridge for four.
Rob Dawes and Gary Hardy remained at large, but police felt sure it would only be a matter of time before they tripped up.
No sooner had police dealt with John Dawes than they began to set their sights on Hardy.
Hardy went to trial in June 2008 accused of conspiring to supply heroin, cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis. The trial was held under the tightest security ever seen at Nottingham Crown Court.
One of the witnesses was Jonathan Guest, one of the gang's lieutenants. He had pleaded guilty in 2002 to conspiracy to supply amphetamines and cannabis and possessing £150,000 of heroin.
He was still serving his twelve-year sentence in 2006 when he decided to approach a solicitor and then got in touch with Crimestoppers.
Guest told the courtroom how he was kidnapped and 'moulded' into the organisation, sent on drug runs and left in charge of the amphetamine factory in Colwick.
Hardy himself had a fleet of luxury cars which could not have come from his legitimate business dealings.
In August 2008, after a three-month trial, the jury came back with guilty verdicts against Hardy. The forty-five-year-old was found guilty of conspiracy to supply heroin and amphetamines, money-laundering and possession of criminal property. He was jailed for twenty years.
Rob Dawes was eventually arrested in Dubai and, at the time of writing, awaits extradition to Spain, where he is due to face charges in connection with a £14m cocaine haul. The Dutch police and Notts Police still want to talk to him about drug shipments and a murder.
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