A former Shildon AFC footballer has received a lengthy prison sentence for his part in an organised crime group that peddled drugs and firearms across the north of England.
Daryll Hall, 39, of Farnley Close, County Durham was charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine.
Hall, a non-league journeyman who had two spells at Shildon, was sentenced to 15 years in his absence having absconded before the start of November’s trial. Work to locate him and bring him into custody is ongoing.
He was one of the final four membersof the group to be sentenced after a a long-running National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.
The group was headed by 39-year-old Carl O’Flaherty, who was jailed for over 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.
From 2019 to late 2020, the organised crime group purchased large quantities of cocaine as well as chemicals required to make amphetamine.
The 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.
This week, on 7 January, three of O’Flaherty’s aides and one of his criminal associates were sentenced at Leeds Crown Court. They were found guilty of drug supply offences following a three-week trial in November 2024.
Michal Stanislawczuk, 39’, was jailed for 12 years for his role as a chef.
Another of the gang’s chefs, 38-year-old David Brierley, was jailed for 12 years and six months.
Safdar Pervez, 57, was a taxi driver who moonlighted as a trusted courier for the criminal network. For his role ferrying large quantities of drugs and tens of thousands of pounds across the north of England, he was jailed for 11 years.
One of his regular trips was to deliver kilos of diluted cocaine to Hall, one of O’Flaherty’s top customers.
In total, ten people have been convicted and sentenced as part of this NCA investigation, with jail terms totalling 118 years.
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
