A group of criminals are facing 15 years behind bars after storming a stash house run by the “biggest firm in Liverpool”.
But now, after plotting and carrying out a major £1million heist on the Liverpool organised crime group, it is more than just time behind bars they will face. According to Jason Cox’s lawyer, he will now have to “look over his shoulder” for “most of the rest of his life”.
The stash house was situated on a residential street in Liverpool, and housed kilos upon kilos of cocaine worth millions. Cox - leader of a Salford crime family - and Richard Caswell teamed up for the major robbery. Another robber pretended to be a delivery driver and knocked on the door before the team burst in.
It was a successful heist: the robbers fled not long afterwards with 30 kilos of cocaine, worth up to £1 million. It was a violent attack, and the dad and son inside the house were attacked with an axe and machete during the raid. The court heard that the robbery team left a “trail of blood in their wake”.
Caswell's lawyer said he is under threat in prison and has become a "target". He was "slashed" in prison previously, the Manchester Evening News reports. On Friday Jason Cox was sentenced to 14 years and eight months in prison.
His brother was sentenced to 13-and-a-half years, and Caswell, nicknamed 'Will' because of an apparent resemblance to pop star Will Young, received seven years. Another Cox brother, Lee Cox, was jailed for eight years for his involvement in the family's drugs business.
Prosecutors told how the "tight knit" Cox crime gang were involved in large scale drug dealing, being linked to more than 20 kilos of cocaine and 50 kilos of cannabis. Jason Cox decided to join forces with Caswell, a well-known Liverpool criminal previously linked to a spate of car bombs across the city in 2003 and 2004, to target another drug dealing gang. The identity of the gang can't be revealed for legal reasons.
Jason Cox and Caswell made at least five surveillance trips to scope out the stash house prior to the robbery, which took place on Saturday, May 23, 2020. Craig Cox was recruited alongside 'foot soldier' Ben Monks-Gorton, who was tasked with posing as a delivery driver.
He knocked on the front door of the house with a cardboard box in his hand before the robbers piled in. The victims were seriously hurt, with one suffering a severe gaping wound which exposed his bone.
The robbers fled with about £1m in cocaine in several bags, leaving in a van. Monks-Gorton had been wearing a Covid mask, and in the struggle it fell off. His DNA was found on the mask by police.
In the aftermath of the robbery, in messages Jason Cox told how he'd got 13 kilos of cocaine from the "biggest firm in Liverpool", that they were "not telling a soul" and "keeping quiet". Cox told how he had "to chop the c*** up badly in his gaffee" during the robbery.
Later, Jason Cox and Lee Cox fled to Spain and had to be dragged back to the UK to face justice. All three brothers and Caswell were sentenced on Friday by Judge Patrick Field KC. He said of the raid: "It was a meticulously executed crime, committed by greedy and desperate criminals, and demonstrated, I suppose, that there is no honour among drug traffickers."
Jason Cox, 37, of Warrington; Craig Cox, 34, of no fixed address; Caswell, 41, of no fixed address; and Monks-Gorton, of no fixed address, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob. Jason Cox, Craig Cox, Lee Cox, 39, of Oaklands Road, Salford, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis and conspiracy to possess criminal property.
Caswell also admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin and possessing criminal property. Monks-Gorton was jailed for six years and nine months at a previous hearing.