Three accused 'played their parts' in Shrewsbury drugs conspiracy, court hears
Three people accused of being in a drugs conspiracy spanning from Shrewsbury to Liverpool had different roles but all played their parts, a barrister told a jury.
Shrewsbury Crown Court heard that Shaun King, Clare Ring and Erin Vesayaporn all at one point or another worked with Dean Pritchard, a Liverpool drug dealer who was the "right hand man" of the conspiracy's top men and who has already pleaded guilty to his part.
King, Ring and Vesayaporn are on trial for conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin, relating to a network that was unravelled by police Operation Insulate in 2015.
Pritchard, also known as Denga, travelled between Shrewsbury and Liverpool frequently and was in regular contact with other dealers and addicts in the network.
One of the conspiracy's focal points was a house in York Road, Shrewsbury, used as a base for dealers to supply to customers including Ring.
The case so far:
Prosecutor Graham Russell said in his closing speech to the jury that the three were all guilty of the conspiracy, even though they had all been involved at different times and with different co-conspirators throughout 2015.
He reminded them that King had been spotted by covert police walking the streets of Shrewsbury with Pritchard in November 2015, meeting people in parked cars, alleyways and children's playgrounds and also visiting York Road.
He mentioned Vesayaporn, who he said had been on friendly terms with Pritchard and travelled with him to Liverpool, until an incident in which he suspected her of betraying him and damaged her car in anger.
Finally Mr Russell cast doubt on Ring's evidence. Earlier in the trial she said that on one of her regular visits to York Road Pritchard had threatened her with a gun and coerced her into hiring a car, in which she then travelled to Liverpool and back with others.
Mr Russell said that the gun had never been found and that her account "doesn't make sense".
He described Pritchard as the right hand man of the "brothers Gray", Anthony and Jordan, who he said played leading roles in the conspiracy and were observed by police outside the house in York Road.
Anthony Gray, 37, and Jordan Gray, 28, both of Speke in Liverpool, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy in July 2017.
Pritchard, 26, of Wavertree, also Liverpool, pleaded guilty in October of that year.
Ring, 48, from Featherbed Lane, Sundorne, and Erin Vesayaporn, 38, of Wayford View, Dorrington, both Shrewsbury; and Shaun King, 21, from Merseyside, deny conspiracy to supply class A drugs and offences of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs. The trial continues.
