The life and crimes of 'Vain Crane'
26.05.2024 - 11:47
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Hiding behind the moniker "Vain Crane", Daniel Shepherd moved huge quantities of drugs. The 32-year-old was involved in handling almost half a million pounds in dirty cash.
He traded wholesale quantities of heroin, cocaine and cannabis - using the EncroChat communications platform to carry out his work. But this was not the full extent of Shepherd's criminal activity, the Liverpool Echo reports.
His connections to the underworld have seen him named as a key figure in criminal proceedings. "Vain Crane" previously almost severed a nurse's arm during a horror smash and was accused of supplying a gun used to kill 16-year-old Lewis Dunne in 2016.
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Having used the encrypted EncroChat platform for his work, Shepherd's device was then passed on to his younger brother following his arrest. Shepherd's criminal links have been well documented over the years, including being cited as a key figure in the trial of three men who were convicted of the execution of 16-year-old Lewis in 2016.
The Echo previously reported that Shepherd was accused in court of being the head of a crack and heroin ring and providing his underlings with the murder weapon. The "wholly innocent" teenager was killed by a single shotgun blast as he walked along on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal in Eldonian Village on the night of November 15 2015.
Jurors heard that Jake Culshaw, Paul Martin and his brother John Martin - as well as a fourth man who was never identified - may have shot Mr Dunne after mistaking him for a member of a rival gang. Shepherd was arrested in connection with the murder but released without charge and, at the time, had no convictions for supplying class A drugs.
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