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An MMA fighter was sentenced to 24 years behind bars for running a drug ring alongside his then girlfriend, as well as his brother and sister.

But Darren Towler was not in court to hear the verdict as he has been on the run since March.

The 41-year-old led a drug gang that flooded the north east with millions of pounds of cocaine, which was couriered in from the north west.

Towler, alongside Merseyside drugs boss, Ricky Hemmings, also oversaw the supply of amphetamine and cannabis over the Pennines, reports Teesside Live.

On Monday, October 31, the sentencing of Towler’s sister, Anita Towler, 43, and of another group member, Steven Ruddick, 38, was adjourned until next month.

The court heard that Anita Towler, of Second Street in Consett, is “in conflict” with her brother; and that Ruddick’s barrister and the prosecution are yet to agree on the extent of his role in the drugs operation.

Prosecutor Emma Dowling said Towler recruited contacts he made in prison while serving an earlier sentence for the supply of drugs.

He communicated with Ricky Hemmings using encrypted phones in an operation which saw huge bundles of cash totalling £1m, being sent back to Merseyside in payment for the drugs.

Police put the group under surveillance in 2017 and followed 10 journeys back and forth within five months.

Their investigations showed there were multiple kilos of drugs exchanged for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Police intercepted a car in Barnard Castle and found two shoe boxes, which were disguised to look like children’s presents, with £100,000 in them.

Ms Dowling said that police found Towler “had all the trappings of a drug dealer” – he was driving a luxury car and wearing a designer watch, but that he was unable to explain how he paid for them.

Towler, of Rutherford Street in Newcastle, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis but denied the other charges.

He was found guilty by a jury this month, of conspiracy to supply cocaine and amphetamine, and handed a 24 year jail term.

His former partner, Jodie Smith, 42, of Main Street in Consett was jailed for six years and six months for conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Towler’s half-brother, Jonathan Kitson, 28, of Riding Hill, Great Lumley, in Durham, was jailed for nine years and 11 months.

Two men from Kirkby, in Merseyside, were sentenced for supplying the drugs, as part of the conspiracy.

Ricky Hemmings, 40, was handed a 12 year six month sentence; and John Campbell, 48, was jailed for six years and eight months.

The other North-east gang members who were jailed were:

• Aaron Merritt, 29, from Consett. He received a two-year-five-month sentence.
• Craig Field, 40, of Lincoln Place in Consett, was jailed for five-years-and-seven-months.
• John Huscroft, 45, of Thornhill Gardens, Burnopfield in Durham, received a suspended 22-month sentence.
• Daniel Mappin, 29, of Front Street, Tudhoe, in Durham was jailed for two years and nine months.

Mappin’s half-brother, Steven Ruddick, has been remanded in custody until he is sentenced.

Ms Dowling told the court that he worked for Mappin’s heavy vehicle recovery business – but that the business was in financial difficulty.

Ms Dowling said that Ruddick introduced his half-brother to Craig Field so that Mappin could start to make money through dealing drugs.

Ruddick, of Pasture Row in Bishop Auckland, will appear alongside Anita Towler on November 21, when they will both be sentenced.

Towler was also part of a group separately charged with trafficking heroin destined for the streets of Teesside.

However he was found not guilty of conspiracy to supply heroin after a four-week trial in November 2016.

Co-accused John McNaughton, then 34, of Bethune Road, Middlesbrough, Anthony Thurlow, 28, of Hollyrood Court, Middlesbrough, Terrance Duffield, 42, of Clairmont Court, Thornaby, and Sean Hornsby, 48, of no fixed abode, were all found guilty of the offence.

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