Woman ran cocaine ring with two sons from affluent Cheshire home

A woman who ran a drug trafficking ring from her home with her two sons has been jailed for three years.

Julie Finney, 48, helped mastermind what was described as a "well run and busy" trade in cocaine and cannabis from her property in Alderley Edge, Cheshire.

Retail worker Finney and her two sons Marcus Finney, 28, and Dylan Hepburn, 19, set up their racket at her £500,000 home in the county's so-called affluent "Golden Triangle”.

Her sons would send out "flare" texts to customers with their latest offers while she offered discounted prices and gave her bank details for online payments.

The racket was eventually busted after a major police investigation into drug supply in the area.

Julie Finney, Marcus Finney and Hepburn all appeared at Chester Crown court on Monday where they were sentenced for conspiracy to supply Class A (cocaine) and conspiracy to supply Class B (cannabis) drugs.

The trio had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

Marcus Finney was handed a four-and-a-half-year jail-term while Julie Finney received three-years imprisonment.

Hepburn was handed an 18-month suspended sentence.

Sion ap Mihangel, prosecuting, said the drug dealing took place from 15 January 2020 till their arrest on 30 May 2021.

He said: "Julie and her sons operated a well run and busy street dealing enterprise together.

“There was mention of large quantities of drugs being sourced and the purchasing of cannabis by the kilogramme.”

On 18 December 2020, police executed a search warrant at the defendants’ home address when Hepburn was present.

Police seized 88g of cannabis valued at between £419 and £460 together with £1,182 in cash.

Mr Ap Mihangel added police also found scales, bags and cutting agents, with Hepburn alone arrested on that occasion.

He was later searched in March and May 2021 and found with more than 20g of cannabis.

Marcus Finney was arrested on 3 March, 2021, when police saw he was going in and out of vehicles.

He was found with cash and cannabis and on his mobile phone messages seen by an officer were consistent with street dealing, the prosecutor said.

During a strip search at the police station, three bags of cocaine valued at £100 to £105 were found on him.

Mobile phones were recovered from all three defendants and messages recovered were consistent with the three being actively involved in supplying cocaine.

Mr Ap Mihangel said the messages suggested they had a “busy” trade dealing in the Rusholme area of south Manchester.

Marcus had 35 previous offences on his record including cannabis dealing in 2010, and being in possession of cannabis in 2012 and 2017.

Mother-of-three Finney had four convictions for four offences, none of which were drug-related.

Her defence counsel Jane Dagnall said: “When she was 15 and started to take drugs Miss Finney probably never thought she would be standing here with two sons and a third in the back of the court watching the fate of the family.”

Sentencing Judge Simon Berkson said: ''There were large amounts of drugs involved.

“This was not just one supply, it was a number of supplies over that period of time.”