North Wales man jailed for 17 years over role in £31.6m drugs plot

Wales Online

27-05-2025

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A North Wales dad's involvement in a £31.6m drugs plot was revealed by the contents of a Sports Direct bags. Raymond Kinnear, and his son Nathan, were jailed for nearly 25 years, after police discovered a huge haul of 45kg of cocaine inside Raymond Kinnear's Audi.
He had left the vehicle parked inside an industrial unit at a business park, a court heard. The 63-year-old enlisted his son, estate agent Nathan Kinnear, to provide "backup" during his criminal activities, as well as booking hotel rooms and providing Sports Direct and Aldi bags for life, which were used to store the illicit substances, reports the ECHO.
Their arrests led to the dad being identified as the EncroChat user "ViperBat" and a Rolex watch being seized from his caravan.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Merseyside Police attended Liver Industrial Estate in Aintree at around 10.45pm on June 18 last year and searched a unit which "appeared to be under the control of a bathroom company". However it had in fact been subleased by Raymond Kinnear around two months earlier on April 28, 2024.
His grey Audi A4 was found parked within the premises, with 70 vacuum sealed blocks of high purity cocaine, weighing a total of 45kg and alone worth more than £1.5million, being located in several Sports Direct bags for life which had been left inside the vehicle.
Nicola Daley, prosecuting, described how investigations subsequently established he had been in contact with his son throughout that afternoon before the dad drove to Merseyside from his caravan at Abbey Farm in Llangollen, Denbighshire. Nathan Kinnear and his girlfriend had meanwhile visited a Sports Direct store in order to purchase eight bags which were "consistent with" those which would later be used to hold the drugs.
(Image: Google Maps)
The 23-year-old also booked a room at the Travelodge at Stonedale Retail Park in Croxteth where his father would stay the night. The two men would visit the hotel together in order to check in before stopping at a BP petrol station and then travelling onwards to the industrial estate, with the son leaving his Mercedes C-Class parked nearby before his partner collected both shortly after 10pm and drove them to an Esso garage.
Nathan Kinnear would be arrested at her home on Scarisbrick Road in Norris Green in the early hours on June 19 after attempting to flee from officers by jumping from an upstairs window, with the keys to the unit being found inside his car. The location in question was labelled a "safe area" where the drugs could be packaged and stored before being transported onwards after trucks had earlier completed deliveries to the site.
Monies totalling £4,700 were subsequently seized from the top shelf of a wardrobe in his bedroom at his mum's home on Satinwood Crescent in Melling, with a further £250 located on the window ledge. PCs visited Raymond Kinnear's caravan later the same day and recovered a "high value" Rolex watch and around £30,000 of cash.
A series of WhatsApp messages and calls between the father and son would ultimately reveal they had been involved in a series of similar movements of drugs or cash over the course of the previous six months. This scheme saw Kinnear senior liaise with others in order to arrange collections or drops off using passwords such as "Dumbo" and "blue".
Nathan Kinnear was meanwhile recruited to perform "administrative" tasks such as providing "strong bags" from Aldi to store the cocaine and similarly booking stays at the same Travelodge hotel under his girlfriend's name. He was also captured by ANPR cameras travelling in convoy with his dad before and after several of these events, which occurred on March 1, March 9, April 23, April 29 and May 17.
Including the seized 45kg, the Kinnears were linked to the supply of a total of 211kg of cocaine during this period. This quantity was said to have a wholesale value of between £6.19million and £7.96million, rising to between £18.9million and £31.6million if sold at street level.
Raymond Kinnear's arrest meanwhile led to him being identified as the user of the EncroChat handle "ViperBat" before the encrypted communications platform was infiltrated by French police during 2020. Detectives were able to attribute this account to him due to references in messages to his co-defendant son, his daughter and his Hyundai i40 car.
This saw him plot with fellow service users to store both cocaine and ketamine in a flat while using vehicles with hidden compartments in order to transport their wares in secret. Kinnear was also instructed by "Bush Tern" to collect £100,000 in cash from Bolton on one occasion in May of that year.
"Notorious Bonsai" thereafter contacted him in order to arrange for a kilogram of cocaine to be dropped off near to the Asda supermarket in Walton. He was meanwhile paid £250 by "Elephant Gate" in order to "pick up some paper from Childwall" on May 30 2020, while he was shown to have used his daughter's car in order drop off a quarter of a kilo of drugs beside a pub on Altway in Aintree in June 2020.
Kinnear's criminal record shows four previous convictions during the 1980s, including receiving three years in 1988 for causing death by reckless driving. Jason Smith, appearing on his behalf, previously said: "He is 63 years of age, and he has had to accept that a significant period of the latter part of his life will be spent serving a custodial sentence.
"That will have an impact on him. More important is the impact on his family. They will suffer. There is an 87-year-old mother who he would have wished to spend time with, and she would have wished to spend time with him. This involvement in criminality deprives them both of that opportunity.
(Image: Merseyside Police)
"The person who suffers most is that one he has brought to the table. He has to suffer the shame and responsibility for his son being in the dock with him. He accepts full responsibility for involving Nathan in what took place.
"His role has been set out. At times, it is a delivery role. At times, it is a role involving far more important logistics. He was working under the direction of others higher up in the chain. He is now aware of the consequences of being involved in offending such as that."
Nathan Kinnear has no previous convictions. Paul Becker, defending, told the court: "A number of people attend on behalf of him today, including his mum, his partner and his sister. You can sign up for all the latest court stories here
"I would ask the court to bear in mind his age. He may have been naïve as to the extent of the operation and the scale of criminality. He may have placed too much trust in his father and the things that he was expected to do for his dad."
In relation to his client's role, Mr Becker said: "It may have been moral support, it may have been a show of strength. We cannot say. He must have been helping. What that help was is speculation. He was not an organiser, but someone who his father trusted.
"His school days were not easy, but, in fairness to him, he enrolled at Hugh Baird College in a tiling course and then construction before pursuing surveying at John Moores University, before covid struck and remote study proved to be a real struggle. He went on to train with Summit and worked on a nationwide rail project before he had a nasty chainsaw accident. He retrained and worked as an estate agent until his arrest.
"He was looking for approval from his dad. It is very difficult to say no to a parent who is expecting a particular response. The defendant accepts that he made serious errors of judgement.
"His 89-year-old grandfather sadly passed away a few days ago. The defendant is loved by members of his family. It is clearly going to be a long sentence for a 23-year-old. I would ask your honour to give him some hope for the future and not to crush his hopes."
Raymond Kinnear, who appeared in the dock wearing a white shirt and tie with short grey hair, admitted two counts of conspiracy to supply cocaine and one of conspiracy to supply ketamine. He was handed 17 years behind bars this morning, Tuesday.
Nathan Kinnear, who wore glasses and a navy blue suit over a white shirt and pale blue tie, as well as sporting short brown hair, pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to supply cocaine. He stood with his head bowed as he received seven years and four months.
Sentencing, Judge Neil Flewitt KC labelled the scheme an "operation on the most serious and commercial scale" and added: "It is clear that Raymond Kinnear was very close to those involved in the importation of the drugs. Raymond Kinnear's role was to collect the cocaine, to store it in an industrial unit rented for that purpose, to divide it and to deliver it to those further down the chain of supply.
"For that work, Raymond Kinnear was well rewarded. In addition, he involved his son Nathan in his offending. Nathan Kinnear played a part in the conspiracy on each occasion that Raymond Kinnear was involved in the distribution of class A drugs.
"There are some important differences in their situations. Nathan Kinnear's role was clearly subordinate to that of his father. It involved booking accommodation, giving his father lifts, sourcing bags in which to carry drugs and providing backup when his father delivered the drugs.
"I have read a letter from Raymond Kinnear and accept that he is genuinely remorseful for involving his son in his offending and for the upset caused to his wider family. It is notable that there is no expression of remorse for the impact on those whose lives have been blighted by the drugs distributed by him and his conspiracy."
Judge Flewitt meanwhile said of Nathan Kinnear: "It is clear that he is a young man who is highly regarded, and he has the potential to make something of his life. I accept that Nathan Kinnear was drawn into this offending by his father as a result of naivety and an eagerness to please.
"Nonetheless, he can have been in no doubt as to the seriousness of the enterprise in which he was involved. Nathan Kinnear was still a young man when he committed the offence. There are grounds to believe that he will develop and, upon release, realise his full potential."
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