North Wales man’s role in £31m drugs plot uncovered when police checked Sports Direct bag

A North Wales man and his son's role in a GBP31m drugs plot was revealed when police looked inside a Sports Direct Bag, which was found in an Audi. Officers found a major haul of 45kg of cocaine inside Raymond Kinnear's car, which had been left parked inside an industrial unit at a business park. Kinnear, 63, was afterwards found to have enlisted his son, estate agent Nathan Kinnear, to work in an "administrative" role in order to help him with his criminal activities, which included booking hotel rooms and providing Sports Direct and Aldi bags for life which were then used to store the illicit substances.

Their arrests led to the dad being identified as the EncroChat user "ViperBat" and a Rolex watch being seized from his caravan, reports the ECHO.[1] Liverpool Crown Court heard on Thursday that Merseyside Police attended Liver Industrial Estate in Aintree at around 10.45pm on June 18 last year and searched a unit which "appeared to be under the control of a bathroom company", but had in fact been subleased by Raymond Kinnear around two months earlier on April 28 2024. His grey Audi A4 was found parked within the premises, with 70 vacuum sealed blocks of high purity cocaine, weighing a total of 45kg, being located in several Sports Direct bags for life which had been left inside the vehicle.

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Nicola Daley, prosecuting, described how investigations subsequently established he had been in contact with his son throughout that afternoon before the dad drove to Merseyside from his caravan at Abbey Farm in Llangollen [2]. Nathan Kinnear and his girlfriend had meanwhile visited a Sports Direct store in order to purchase eight bags which were "consistent with" those which would later be used to hold the drugs. The 23-year-old also booked a room at the Travelodge at Stonedale Retail Park in Croxteth where his father would stay the night.

The two men would visit the hotel together in order to check-in before stopping at a BP petrol station then travelling onwards to the industrial estate, with the son leaving his Mercedes C-Class parked nearby before his partner collected both shortly after 10pm and drove them to an Esso garage. Nathan Kinnear would be arrested at her home on Scarisbrick Road in Norris Green in the early hours on June 19 after attempting to flee from officers by jumping from an upstairs window, with the keys to the unit being found inside his car. The location in question was labelled a "safe area" where the drugs could be packaged and stored before being transported onwards after trucks had earlier completed deliveries to the site.

Monies totalling GBP4,700 were subsequently seized from the top shelf of a wardrobe in his bedroom at his mum's home on Satinwood Crescent in Melling, with a further GBP250 located on the window ledge. PCs visited Raymond Kinnear's caravan later the same day and recovered a "high value" Rolex watch and around GBP30,000 of cash. A series of WhatsApp messages and calls between the father and son would ultimately reveal they had been involved in a series of similar movements of drugs or cash over the course of the previous six months.

This scheme saw Kinnear senior liaise with others in order to arrange collections or drops off using passwords such as "Dumbo" and "blue". Nathan Kinnear was meanwhile recruited to perform "administrative" tasks such as providing "strong bags" from Aldi to store the cocaine and similarly booking stays at the same Travelodge hotel under his girlfriend's name. He was also captured by ANPR cameras travelling in convoy with his dad before and after several of these events, which occurred on March 1, March 9, April 23, April 29 and May 17.

Including the seized 45kg, the Kinnears were linked to the supply of a total of 211kg of cocaine during this period. This quantity was said to have a wholesale of between GBP6.19million and GBP7.96million, rising to between GBP18.9million and GBP31.6million if sold at street level. Raymond Kinnear's arrest meanwhile led to him being identified as the user of the EncroChat handle "ViperBat" before the encrypted communications platform was infiltrated by French police during 2020.

Detectives were able to attribute this account to him due to references in messages to his co-defendant son, his daughter and his Hyundai i40 car. This saw him plot with fellow service users to store both cocaine and ketamine in a flat while using vehicles with hidden compartments in order to transport their wares in secret. Kinnear was also instructed by "Bush Tern" to collect GBP100,000 in cash from Bolton on one occasion in May of that year.

"Notorious Bonsai" thereafter contacted him in order to arrange for a kilogram of cocaine to be dropped off near to the Asda supermarket in Walton. He was meanwhile paid GBP250 by "Elephant Gate" in order to "pick up some paper from Childwall" on May 30 2020, while he was shown to have used his daughter's car in order drop off a quarter of a kilo of drugs beside a pub on Altway in Aintree in June 2020. Kinnear's criminal record shows four previous convictions during the 1980s, including receiving three years in 1988 for causing death by reckless driving.

Jason Smith, appearing on his behalf, said today: "He is 63 years of age, and he has had to accept that a significant period of the latter part of his life will be spent serving a custodial sentence. "That will have an impact on him. More important is the impact on his family.

They will suffer. There is an 87-year-old mother who he would have wished to spend time with, and she would have wished to spend time with him. This involvement in criminality deprives them both of that opportunity.

"The person who suffers most is that one he has brought to the table. He has to suffer the shame and responsibility for his son being in the dock with him. He accepts full responsibility for involving Nathan in what took place.

"His role has been set out. At times, it is a delivery role. At times, it is a role involving far more important logistics.

He was working under the direction of others higher up in the chain. He is now aware of the consequences of being involved in offending such as that." Nathan Kinnear has no previous convictions.

Paul Becker, defending, told the court: "A number of people attend on behalf of him today, including his mum, his partner and his sister. "I would ask the court to bear in mind his age. He may have been naive as to the extent of the operation and the scale of criminality.

He may have placed too much trust in his father and the things that he was expected to do for his dad." In relation to his client's role, Mr Becker said: "It may have been moral support, it may have been a show of strength. We cannot say.

He must have been helping. What that help was is speculation. He was not an organiser, but someone who his father trusted.

"His school days were not easy, but, in fairness to him, he enrolled at Hugh Baird College in a tiling course and then construction before pursuing surveying at John Moores University, before covid struck and remote study proved to be a real struggle. He went on to train with Summit and worked on a nationwide rail project before he had a nasty chainsaw accident. He retrained and worked as an estate agent until his arrest.

"He was looking for approval from his dad. It is very difficult to say no to a parent who is expecting a particular response. The defendant accepts that he made serious errors of judgement."

Some of his supporters were seen to be in tears as Mr Becker added: "His 89-year-old grandfather sadly passed away a few days ago. The defendant is loved by members of his family. It is clearly going to be a long sentence for a 23-year-old.

I would ask your honour to give him some hope for the future and not to crush his hopes." Raymond Kinnear, who appeared in the dock wearing a khaki green Rab tracksuit top with short grey hair, admitted two counts of conspiracy to supply cocaine and one of conspiracy to supply ketamine. Nathan Kinnear, who wore glasses and a navy blue suit over a white shirt and pale blue tie, as well as sporting short brown hair, pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Judge Neil Flewitt KC had been due to pass sentence today, but the case was ultimately adjourned until May 27 due to a lack of court time. Raymond Kinnear was seen to wave towards those sitting in the public gallery as he was led to the cells. Further remanding the defendants into custody until this date, he said: "I am sorry that I cannot sentence you this afternoon.

I know you want to know your fate, but I would not be doing justice to you if I rushed this. "I am going to take time to reflect on this. I am sure that you both appreciate that you are facing substantial terms of imprisonment.

North Wales man’s role in £31m drugs plot uncovered when police checked Sports Direct bag

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