The nephew of Anthony and Leon Cullen flooded Warrington with cocaine and MDMA
16:07, 21 Dec 2025Updated 16:45, 21 Dec 2025
“Big boss baby” Lewis Turner, nephew of the Cullen twins(Image: Cheshire Constabulayry)
A violent drug boss who called himself the “big boss baby” recruited family members into his criminal empire in a bid to step out from his gangster uncles’ shadows. Lewis Turner stepped up and worked with partner Anthony Morgan to flood Warrington with high purity cocaine and MDMA after a number of the gang were previously jailed.
Turner lived a leisurely lifestyle as his crime group turned over thousands a week. He enticed customers by bragging that his cocaine was both cheap and the best, while bizarrely calling himself the “big boss baby”.
But his exploits were nothing compared to his uncles – Anthony and Leon Cullen. The Cullen twins ran a huge-scale drug importation and supply scheme which saw them turn over profits of at least £300,000 a month. They also “used violence to intimidate and control” others and stashed weapons including an AK-47 assault rifle.
Turner and his mob paled in comparison to the Cullen operation. But it is believed Turner and partner Morgan were working for somebody higher up the criminal chain, allegedly his uncles. But Turner’s cocaine ring, which he used violence and threats to maintain, did not last much longer than that of the Cullens.
As part of a weekly series looking back at the north west’s criminal history, the ECHO has taken a closer look at Turner’s drug gang and how it operated after the Cullens OCG collapsed following a significant police operation targeting organised crime in Warrington.
Police mugshots of brothers Anthony and Leon Cullen(Image: Cheshire Police/Liverpool Echo)
Turner took over the running of the crime group’s supply of cocaine when the previous members – Wesley Williamson, Uktu Tig and Robert Musson – were sent to prison.
Detective Chief Inspector Giles Pierce, of Cheshire Constabulary’s serious and organised crime unit, said: “Turner taking over as the ringleader gave him a huge ego – he was arrogant and often displayed acts of serious violence in order to mark his authority. He was motivated by the money he was generating from the supply of drugs, and would be constantly splashing the cash.”
The gang was extremely close-knit and recruited family members to help with operations. Turner’s girlfriend was in charge of the drugs debt list, calculating and handling the money generated from the criminal enterprise. On at least one occasion she also supplied drugs to a customer on behalf of her partner.
Turner’s partner in crime Morgan, who had been a former customer, also widened the crime group to include his nan, girlfriend and her older sister. His nan prepared, stored and supplied drugs on behalf of her grandson at her home, with police eventually recovering £150,000 of cocaine from her house and at another address linked to Morgan’s partner and sister.
Morgan also messaged his nan to discuss the conspiracy and would ask how much drugs were left at her house and instruct her to bring the drugs to him. Morgan’s partner and her sister were also caught delivering cocaine, wrapped in a shopping bag with snap bags and gloves.
Lewis Turner (left) and Anthony Morgan
Perhaps an indication of the size of the operation compared to his uncles, Turner took it upon himself to collect the money from customers who purchased large supplies. He did so with a level of violence to set his authority on the streets. On one occasion, with his partner in the car, he assaulted a man who had not paid him for the drugs he had supplied.
The gang supplied mainly cocaine, but also occasionally ecstasy, in various amounts, from multiple ounces all the way through to single wrap street dealing. A police source quoted in the Warrington Guardian said a gang through which Turner bought his drugs had “undoubted” links to the Cullen brothers.
Another link which further tightened the gap between the Cullens and Turner was another member of the latter’s gang, John Large. Large acted as the “operations manager” for Leon Cullen as part of a conspiracy which saw drugs couriered across north west and as far afield as Derbyshire and Lincolnshire.
That conspiracy ended in 2011 when Large and Leon Cullen were jailed. Large later proudly told the local press how he had turned his life around after Timpsons gave him a chance while still in prison. But several years after his release his name became associated again with criminality, this time as part of Turner’s gang.
John Large
Other members of the Turner gang included Paul Ratcliffe, whose house was as a safehouse; Anthony Bond, who was trusted to drive around cash and drugs; and Kayvon Allen, a former customer who owed a debt who packaged up drugs. A safe bought by Turner was found in Ratcliffe’s house with £7,000 of MDMA, cash and paraphernalia in it, while cannabis worth almost £8,000 was stored in Bond’s house.
Following a police operation lasting roughly a year, officers carried out a series of raids in July 2019 which saw eight of the gang arrested. By this time the Cullens, who had sat at the top of Warrington’s criminal underworld for a number of years, had also been smashed as part of a police operation.
The brothers ran their gang like a business, with a monthly wage bill plus bonuses and accommodation incentives for their so-called employees. The gang also held a terrifying arsenal of weapons, the largest cache ever seized by Cheshire Constabulary, which included a pump action shotgun, automatic pistols and revolvers. These guns were made available to hire by other gangs for thousands of pounds and were linked to shootings across the north west, including at a house in Bootle in 2015.
A cache of firearms seized as part of a probe into a major drugs and guns gang headed by Anthony and Leon Cullen(Image: Liverpool Echo)
In a series of dawn raids in early 2018, police began to round up the Cullen gang. Anthony was arrested trying to flee the country and was handed 27 years in prison the following year for conspiracy to supply firearms and cocaine. But Leon, who was linked to a series of gun and grenade attacks in his town, managed to get out and spent two years on the run from police before he was eventually detained on an international arrest warrant in Dubai.
Leon’s case gained further notoriety when his barrister told Liverpool Crown Court that the gangster had been arrested at gunpoint, beaten, held in a cell with 50 other inmates and had to use soap as a toothpaste. Leon pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply firearms, conspiracy to possess ammunition and conspiracy to supply cocaine and was sentenced to 22-and-a-half-years in prison.
Lewis Turner, formerly of Howson Road in Warrington, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and MDMA in May 2020. He was sentenced to six years and nine months. He was later ordered to pay back over £50,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act. A judge also granted a confiscation order worth £307,000 against the gang.
Morgan, formerly of Densham Avenue in Warrington, was jailed for six years and two months, while Bond, Allen and Ratcliffe also received prison sentences. Williamson, Musson, Large and Tig were jailed at an earlier hearing. Turner and Morgan’s family members who were brought into the conspiracy received suspended sentences.