Drugs gang leader who splashed cash on luxury beach holiday with money-laundering girlfriend ordered to pay back £25k
16.07.2022 - 17:55
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A drugs boss and his money laundering partner have been ordered to pay back £25k after splashing their ill-gotten cash on a luxury holiday in Thailand. Christopher Williams, 32, made more than £100,000 leading a gang selling heroin and crack on the streets of Barrow-in-Furness, a court heard.
His girlfriend Lauren Callister, 26, made £4,638 helping him launder his dirty cash.
Williams and Callister, who laundered around £15,000 of dirty cash for Williams via her bank account, flew on holidays to Thailand to soak up the sun in a luxury villa. And while members of Williams' gang flooded the Cumbrian streets with drugs, Callister was sharing snaps of her posing in a bikini on a boat trip with her drug dealer boyfriend at Pileh Lagoon. It was, she said, the 'best place iv ever stayed'.
READ MORE: Man armed with machete caught bursting into home before fleeing seconds later - after leaving pair seriously hurt
Back on home soil, Williams' footsoldiers travelled between Merseyside and Barrow, recruiting a network of people to keep the operation afloat. Between November 1, 2019 and June 23, 2020 more than 7,000 text messages were sent through a designated phone line to 200 drug users in Barrow.
But the couple's high life was fleeting. Following an investigation, police identified the source of the messages and Williams was arrested on suspicion of conpsiracy to supply heroin and crack. In November 2021, the gang leader, of Douglas Close, Old Swan, Liverpool, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years at Preston Crown Court. He admitted roping Callister, originally from Carlisle, into the drugs plot, which spared her a prison sentence.
Callister was originally charged with being involved in the same heroin and crack cocaine