The gang was caught with £70,000 of heroin and crack cocaine stashed in the boot of a Land Rover
Raymond Nicholls, Leroy Parris and Raymond Escoffrey
A drug dealer refused to attend court after receiving “threats” behind bars. Raymond Nicholls was part of a gang which was caught with £70,000 of heroin and crack cocaine stashed in the boot of a Land Rover, as well as weapons including an air rifle and a stun gun.
Both he and his co-defendant Raymond Escoffrey were successfully able to flee the clutches of police as accomplice Leroy Parris “created a diversion”, wrestling with officers and shouting “get off, leave these to me”. It came after two PCs “stumbled across” the class A ring’s “base of operations”, having believed that the property had been burgled due to its open front door.
Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday, Tuesday, that a Merseyside Police investigation, codenamed Operation Disco, targeted drug dealing activity within the L8 area between October 2024 and January 2025. Surveillance conducted over the course of these four months identified Parris, Escoffrey and Nicholls as being involved in a “county lines type model” which supplied heroin and crack cocaine to users at street level.
Stephen McNally, prosecuting, detailed how they used the former’s partner’s address on Earle Road in Wavertree as the “hub of the enterprise”, from which the organised crime group “conducted its business”. They were seen attending this property on “most days” before personally selling illicit substances to customers from the house itself and on nearby streets.
Activity on the gang’s “graft phone” was shown to have been consistent with the equivalent of around 6.8kg of class A drugs, “worth somewhere in the region of £700,000”, being supplied over the course of a year. “Flare messages” which were used to advertise their wares for sale, examples of which included “on”, “about” and “on bro with heavy”, would be broadcast to up to 50 contacts at a time.
Mr McNally told the court: “It is described as a busy and sophisticated operation. It showed hourly activity, demonstrating an active and busy line.”
Raymond Escoffrey, of Shakespeare Avenue in Kirkby, aged 41(Image: Merseyside Police)
On one occasion, on October 1 last year, Parris was observed visiting Earle Road carrying a black rucksack before Escoffrey, of Shakespeare Avenue in Kirkby, attended around half an hour afterwards. When Nicholls then arrived around 15 minutes later, the three men left in a Vauxhall Insignia which was being driven with false number plates.
The car was then driven to Banner Street in Wavertree, where an unknown woman walked towards the vehicle and engaged in an exchange with the occupants. The defendants subsequently returned to Earle Road, at which stage the graft number was used to send a bulk message out to 33 contacts while connected with a cell mast covering the same area.
This “pattern of behaviour that would be repeated on subsequent occasions”, including one on November 21 which saw Parris, of Carter Street in Toxteth, and Nicholls, of Princes Road, supply drugs to a man in an alleyway. Mr McNally added: “The investigation ultimately culminated with arrests on Saturday, the 4th of January 2025, when officers unconnected to the ongoing investigation came across the address at Earle Road.
Raymond Nicholls(Image: Merseyside Police)
“In short, officers passing the address noticed that the front door of the property appeared to have been left open and made enquiries. All three defendants were present within. In the rear garden, there was a Land Rover vehicle. Enquiries identified that it was bearing false plates, which, in turn, led to the arrests and the recovery of class A controlled drugs from that vehicle.”
With Escoffrey having been handcuffed by officers and Nicholls arrested in the back garden, Parris began to struggle with the PCs who were detaining him and attempted to jump over a fence in order to escape. Mr McNally continued: “As Mr Parris struggled with the officers, he shouted to Escoffrey and Nicholls to make good their escape, saying to them, ‘get off, leave these to me’. Indeed, while the officers were dealing with Mr Parris, both Escoffrey and Nicholls took the opportunity to get off and ran from the premises, making good their escapes.”
Leroy Parris, of Carter Street, aged 41(Image: Merseyside Police)
The organised crime group’s graft phone was subsequently recovered from the premises, while 700g of crack cocaine, worth up to £60,000, and 138g of heroin, valued at £9,170, was located within a rucksack in the boot of the Land Rover. The keys to a BMW car were meanwhile found inside the pocket of a Berghaus jacket belonging to Parris, with the vehicle then being located on nearby Fearnside Street.
A stun gun which was discovered in the rear was said to have been “in good condition, functional and fully charged”. An air rifle “in good condition and in working order”, having been successfully test fired, was meanwhile seized from a storage container within the garden of the Earle Road address.
Nicholls was ultimately located by police in a flat above a restaurant on Prenton Road West, Wirral, on January 15 this year. Escoffrey was then arrested at an address on Winstone Road in Dovecot five days later on January 20.
Parris has a total of 24 previous convictions for 39 offences, including a two-year detention and training order for supplying class A drugs in 2001 and six years for possession of class A drugs with intent to supply in 2014. The 41-year-old thereafter received 33 months for possession of a firearm in 2018.
Anthony Barraclough, defending, said: “This is a man with a terrible record and previous convictions for similar offending. He has some good points. We all know that problems with the family and children, and so on, take second place against the seriousness of quite high level street dealing.”
Escoffrey’s criminal record shows eight previous court appearances for 17 offences, including possession of a class A drug with intent to supply in 2001 and five years for possession of a firearm and ammunition in 2008. Jason Smith said on his behalf: “The observation has already been made that personal mitigation in cases like this counts for very little, but he wishes to make this very clear.
“In the six months or so that he has had on remand, he has attended a number of courses, including two welding courses and other courses, that would hopefully lead to employment in the future. He has taken part in plays and poetry. He is extremely proud of the work that he has done and extremely proud of what he hopes are prospects for the future which he has been able to obtain.
“It is perhaps indicative of a man, at 41 years of age, who wishes to change his life around. One hopes the work that he has done is genuine and that the comments he puts through me do lead on to him leading a constructive, employed life.
“He has a 14-year-old daughter. He has had very little contact with her. Many of the courses that he has attended are with the hope that he can rebuild that relationship.
“One hopes that what he says is genuine and that he is able to put it into practice, because, if he does not, the sentences will be longer and longer, and the desires that he expresses would become less and less attainable. This is street dealing with aggravating features, but, nonetheless, it is offending which falls under that general heading and it does not involve higher criminality.”
Nicholls’ 20 convictions and 50 offences include four years for possession of class A drugs with intent to supply in 2014. The 38-year-old’s counsel Paul Lewis described his client’s escape from custody as “impulsive and momentary” and an incident which he “very much regrets”, adding: “He has two young children, aged four and six, and hopes to turn his talents to other matters and build a life with his children away from coming back before the courts.”
All three admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply. Wearing a black Puma t-shirt in the dock, Parris, who also pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited weapon and possession of a firearm when prohibited for life, was jailed for nine years.
Escoffrey, who wore a grey tracksuit top over an orange North Face t-shirt and also admitted escaping from lawful custody, was handed eight-and-a-half years. Nicholls similarly pleaded guilty to escaping from lawful custody but remained absent from court as he was locked up for eight years and eight months.
Mr Lewis had earlier said of his client’s refusal to leave the cells of the Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts: “There were verbal threats made to him in custody yesterday in relation to members of the public. I stress that it has got no connection with either men in the dock.
“He is aware that there are staff here to protect him and that he is in a secure dock. Nevertheless, the fear that he has is genuinely held. He is content for me to mitigate in his absence. It is for that reason and that reason alone that he has not come into the dock.”
Escoffery was meanwhile heard to remark “what’s wrong with him?” when he learned of Nicholls’ absence. Sentencing, Judge Charlotte Crangle said: “I have heard the reasons why Raymond Nicholls is not in court. I do not apply any adverse comments for those reasons.
“It is clear from the drugs recovered that these were conspiracies which were intended to continue into the future, had it not been for the fact of these two officers stumbling across the base of your operations. It is clear that this was a well established graft line that would no doubt have been operating prior to the indictment period. This is, therefore, a snapshot into the extent of your criminality.
“You also have relevant previous convictions to a lesser or greater degree. You had all been under surveillance for some time, and you had been observed on a number of days to be conducting a joint drug dealing operation.
“This operation involved the supply of both crack cocaine and heroin directly to users. Purely coincidentally, two officers seeing the front door open approached the property thinking it might have been burgled.”
Judge Crangle said of the weapons: “These were clearly part and parcel of your drug dealing enterprise. Whether to be used to protect yourself or to enforce debts or threats if necessary, it matters not.
“You, Mr Parris, created a diversion by attempting to run away. While you were quickly caught, you shouted to your co-defendants, urging them to run while you took care of the officers. They did exactly that, making their escape, Mr Escoffrey still in handcuffs.
“As is often the case, you have been referred to as good dads, partners and friends. It is clear that you have another side to you, and you have used your time in custody so far constructively. It is to be hoped that continues.
“As always, it is your children and family who are innocent but will suffer most from your absence. Nonetheless, involvement in the supply of drugs in the quantities in this case is an extremely serious offence. You contributed to degradation and human misery.”