Dominic McInally skipped the country after investigators rumbled a plot involving 75% purity cocaine
Dominic McInally, following his eventual capture, aged 30
One of Merseyside’s most wanted men linked to a 75% purity cocaine plot was finally arrested in a Marbella strip club. Dominic McInally spent six years on the run before he was tracked by investigators to the Costa del Sol.
He came under the focus of detectives after six kilograms of cocaine were discovered in a car stopped in Crosby back in 2014. Investigators believed the haul, with a purity of 75%, would have been adulterated using bulking agents to become up to 25kg before being split into street deals.
Authorities found those linked to the Crosby seizure had travelled to the border of France and Belgium to pick up the drugs and secreted the haul in a hidden compartment inside a Seat Leon car. Five men were jailed for a combined total of 48 years but McInally avoided justice in the years that followed before his eventual arrest more than half a decade on.
As part of a weekly series looking back at Merseyside’s criminal history, the ECHO has taken a closer look at the case of McInally, how he lived a life of luxury on the run and how investigators finally pinned him down.
McInally was pitched as the ringleader of that drugs gang – a crew that expected to bank more than £1m every month – as his face was plastered across billboards and wanted appeals circulated in the UK and Spain.
Criminal proceedings for other members of the gang heard how the Seat Leon was used as a “Trojan horse”, with the gang describing it as a “pie car” – a slang term for a vehicle able to hide illicit substances. Pictures showed the “hide” was in a constructed box within the transmission tunnel.
A Seat Leon used to smuggle drugs from the continent. The car was adapted to store cocaine in the transmission
The gang used a special Blackberry phone, which had a security feature meaning emails couldn’t be read by prying eyes. Other members of the operation boasted about quaffing champagne and sniffing “Charlie” on a ferry from their profits.
But when the net closed in, McInally skipped the country. A European arrest warrant was issued for the then 25-year-old in 2016 the day after the rest of the gang was sentenced.
At court, Judge Norman Wright, while sentencing the other men, said: “There is another man for whom there is a European arrest warrant. That man was the very top of this conspiracy and that man had a leading role.”
Det Supt Lee Turner said: “Despite the conviction of these offenders, this is still an open investigation and I would like to take this opportunity to appeal for the public’s help in tracing Dominic McInally as we believe he may have vital information in relation to this conspiracy. I would urge McInally, or anyone who knows of his whereabouts to contact us.”
As part of a high profile wanted campaign McInally’s mugshot was placed on billboards and even driven around Spanish tourist hotspots on a van in the hope that someone would recognise him.
Dominic McInally’s wanted picture(Image: Crimestoppers/PA Wire)
McInally’s time on the run came to a dramatic end when Spanish National Police raided the Casa Masa strip club, near Marbella, in the early hours of February 28, 2020. The operation saw officers in Spain work with the National Crime Agency and Merseyside Police to strike at the club and arrest McInally, formerly of Formby.
The then 30-year-old had been named as one of Crimestoppers’ most wanted under Operation Captura, a project that sought information about fugitives thought to have been hiding in Spain.
McInally claimed he was friends with gang members, but had nothing to do with cocaine and made his money by trading cars and jewellery. But jurors saw through the lies and unanimously found him guilty of conspiracy to supply class A drugs following a trial that detailed the luxury lifestyle McInally enjoyed through his criminal exploits.
The ECHO later revealed how despite having “no obvious” income between 2007 and 2014, McInally:
Lived in a luxury flat complex in Victoria Road, Formby, the street beloved by Premier League stars and millionaire property developers.Had a wardrobe full of £85,000 of designer clothes and watches, including 44 pairs of shoes with Balenciaga trainers and Laboutin boots.Stashed nearly £35,000 of dirty cash in chocolate and biscuit tins under the floorboards of his parents’ home in Little Crosby and a property in North Wales.Holidayed in Dubai in 2013 and 2014, but had avoided paying tax nearly all of his adult life.
The prosecutor in his case told jurors the drugs criminal was “a man who knew the price of everything but the value of nothing”. McInally was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment.
Cash seized from cocaine dealer Dominic McInally’s mum and dad’s home in Little Crosby
Following McInally’s conviction Merseyside Police‘s then deputy chief constable Ian Critchley said: “The verdict is a great result and a fine example of what can be achieved when forces and agencies work together across borders to apprehend a serious and organised criminal such as McInally.
“He thought he could evade law enforcement. But there can be no hiding place when forces and agencies work well together…I hope that the guilty verdict sends a message to criminals who think that they can hide from justice that we will find you and we will put you before the courts.”
Following McInally’s sentence investigators targeted his profits. Detectives believed he personally benefited to the tune of just over a quarter of a million pounds from the gang’s criminality. But the authorities were ultimately left with just his designer wardrobe.
Other members of the gang jailed in 2016 included James Gradwell, of no fixed abode, sentenced to 13 years and seven months, Christopher Corry, of Halifax Crescent in Thornton, jailed for 11 years and six months, Ryan McQueen, of Laurel Drive, in County Armagh, sentenced to six years, Jordan Talbot, of Elson Road in Formby, put behind bars for six years and six months, and William Marsh, of Rock Lane in Melling, who was sentenced to 10 years and eight months.