Daryll Samuel Hall is said to have sent a sick note, supposedly from Thailand, absenting himself from Leeds Crown Court, prior to the trial of himself and three co-accused, which began on November 5 last year.
Judge Rob Mairs ruled that the trial should proceed in his absence and subsequently issued a bench warrant for his arrest.
Hall, formerly of Farnley Close, Spennymoor, and his co-conspirators, from the Leeds and Bradford areas, were duly convicted of conspiracy to supply class A drugs at the end of the three-week hearing.
Jail terms totalling more than 50 years, with 39-year-old Hall receiving a 15-year sentence, again in his absence, were passed by Judge Mairs at the court on Tuesday (January 7).
(Image: National Crime Agency) The court heard that the warrant remains outstanding and Hall is still at large, but that efforts to locate him and bring him into custody are ongoing.
When proceedings in the long-running case, began, in April 2022, he was on court bail with a condition to stay in touch with his solicitors.
The National Crime Agency (NCA), which oversaw the investigation, said as Hall was charged by postal requisition, his bail was imposed by the courts as opposed to police bail.
Asked about the efforts to trace Hall, an NCA spokesman said today (Wednesday, January 8): “There’s not much we can add at this time due to open lines of enquiry, though worth noting, as evidenced in our ‘most wanted’ campaign, that we’ve had a number of successes of locating British fugitives and returning them to custody to face justice/serve sentences.
“This is down to close liaison and partnerships with law enforcement both in the UK and overseas, and a determination to put those on the run before the courts.”
The NCA spokesman confirmed that the case of another of the defendants in the investigation into the same organised crime group (OCG), Clinton Blakey was an example of this cooperation coming to fruition, following his arrest in Spain, after three years on the run, in May 2023.
“He absconded and was traced to Marbella before being brought back to the UK, back in 2023, and was sentenced to 12 years for his role in the OCG.”
(Image: National Crime Agency) Hall was among the final quartet involved in the OCG, which peddled drugs and firearms across the north of England, to be jailed following the lengthy NCA investigation.
The group was headed by 39-year-old Carl O’Flaherty, who was jailed for more than 17 years in 2023.
His criminal enterprise was foiled as part of Operation Venetic, the NCA-led UK response to the infiltration and takedown of encrypted communications platform EncroChat.
Between 2019 and late 2020 the gang bought large quantities of cocaine as well as chemicals required to make amphetamine.
Those drugs and chemicals were taken to addresses in Leeds and Bradford where gang members, referred to as “chefs”, would produce amphetamine and adulterate the cocaine for onward supply.
Taxi driver Safdar Pervez, 57, from Leeds, ‘moonlighted’ as a courier for the criminal network, ferrying large quantities of drugs and tens of thousands of pounds across the north of England.
(Image: National Crime Agency) One of his regular trips was said to have been to County Durham to deliver kilos of diluted cocaine to Hall, who was described as a criminal associate of O’Flaherty and one of his, “top customers”.
(Image: National Crime Agency) Pervez received an 11-year jail sentence, at Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, while “chefs’ Michal Stanislawczuk, 39, from Bradford, and 38-year-old David Brierley, also from Leeds, received 12 and 12-and-a-half year sentences, respectively.
(Image: National Crime Agency) (Image: National Crime Agency) NCA investigators unravelled the drugs conspiracy after a fist-sized bag of cocaine and an EncroChat handset were seized from ex-Leeds footballer Paul Shepherd’s car, in April 2020.
His house was searched and officers discovered a Glock pistol, a bolt-action sniper rifle and 213 rounds of ammunition.
He was sentenced to more than nine years’ imprisonment, in 2023.
EncroChat data showed that O’Flaherty directed Shepherd to store the firearms at his address and move the cocaine found in his car.
Further expert analysis uncovered the crime group’s business model.
While the amphetamine was produced by “chefs” Stanislawczuk and Brierley on-site at properties in Leeds and Bradford, high purity cocaine was purchased three kilos at a time, for £123,000.
(Image: National Crime Agency) It would then be diluted with cheap chemicals and resold as four kilos for £150,000 to dealers one step down the supply chain, such as Hall.
NCA Operations Manager Nigel Coles said: “Our complex and extensive investigation has brought down every member of this dangerous criminal network, from the mastermind behind the conspiracy to couriers transporting both firearms and drugs across the north of England.
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“Lengthy custodial sentences have been given to all the ten members of this organised crime group and the investigation has stopped significant quantities of harmful drugs reaching our communities, together with the seizure of deadly firearms.
“At the NCA we are committed to our mission of protecting the public from serious and organised crime, and in dismantling this network we have made our communities a safer place to live.”
In all, ten people have been jailed as part of the investigation receiving sentences totalling 118 years.