Video footage of drugs gang's car chase with police

Three members of the Jonno Joe Line – who peddled heroin and crack cocaine on the streets of Warrington – were today locked up for a combined total of 14 years.

Following the sentencing, Cheshire Police have released dramatic CCTV footage of a chase which saw the trio ensnared by officers.

These events ensued in March last year, after the organised crime group was observed dealing drugs to an undercover officer on Scott Street in Orford while travelling in a stolen BMW X3.

Covert footage of Freeman dealing drugs

This car had been taken during a burglary in the Manchester area around a week earlier.

The force alerted colleagues at Merseyside Police that the vehicle was travelling in the direction of St Helens, where leader Tre Freeman was based.

This led to a pursuit in the Newton-le-Willows area, during which the 19-year-old rammed police cars on High Street – injuring one officer.

After being hit by a stinger, the occupants abandoned the vehicle in a cul de sac on Walmsley Street and fled on foot.

Three of them were detained shortly after the decamp on nearby Birley Street, but Freeman was able to escape to a nearby park.

The teenager then sought the assistance of two members of the public in vaulting a fence in order to make his way onto Park Road North.

But after making his way over the barrier, they revealed themselves to be plain clothes police officers – who swiftly arrested him as well.

Freeman’s Jonno Joe Line was the successor to another gang – the JJ Line, of which he was also a member.

This was initially led by John Palmer, a thug who once set his dog on a man who died of a bleed on the brain less than a week later.

His gang is believed to have been supplied by upstream OCGs based in Liverpool, and investigations led to a raid at a house in Latchford village in March 2021.

Officers were expecting to find street dealer Freeman inside, but instead got the main man himself – as well as co-defendant Ewan Burrows.

The pair were in the process of bagging up drugs, and Palmer attempted to flee the Knutsford Road address but was intercepted by a second team of waiting officers outside.

‘Runner’ Burrows meanwhile burst into tears after being busted.

Detectives then executed a search warrant at a flat on Rylands Street in the town centre which was also being leased by Palmer, and where more drugs were being stored.

In total, class A and B substances with a street value of roughly £13,000 – namely £6,000 of cocaine, £3,500 of crack cocaine, £2,000 of heroin and £1,500 of cannabis – were seized from the two properties.

It put the dad-of-two back behind bars for another serious conviction, having been jailed for three years in January 2011 for inflicting grievous bodily harm, being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

This followed a feud between Palmer and Simon Whittall over drugs which sparked a violent street brawl on Froghall Lane in Bewsey on a Thursday afternoon in September 2009 and spilled out into the road, halting traffic.

Mr Whittall was mauled with his assailant’s American bulldog and stamped on as he lay injured on the floor, as well as being struck with a metal chain and kicked.

The victim – who suffered dog bites to his arms, legs, torso and groin – collapsed at a friend’s house three days later and was rushed to hospital, but died aged 39 six days after the altercation.

But it ‘could not be established’ if he had died as a result of Palmer’s assault.

Following his conviction, he posted a picture on Facebook of himself laughing while holding a copy of the Warrington Guardian in which news of his attack featured on the front page.

Freeman meanwhile remained at large and took over the running of the gang.

This was the beginning of the Jonno Joe Line, with the new leader using his knowledge of the operation and access to addicts to his advantage.

He also recruited his friends Connor Houghton and Ellis Rigby to work within the operation.

Drugs and cash were then seized during a raid on an OCG stronghold on Reynolds Street in Latchford in May 2021.

Despite his young age, teenager Freeman is no stranger to the law.

He was handed a suspended sentence in 2020 after a two-week crime spree in which £10,000 of mopeds and push bikes were stolen.

The 19-year-old was then jailed for 40 months in August 2021 after trying to run over a police officer and crashing into cars and a wall at Fox Covert Cemetery on Halloween the previous year, then brandishing a knife during a street fight.

It was estimated that the JJ Line and Jonno Joe Line were each responsible for the supplying in the region of £130,000 of drugs.

Houghton meanwhile was also sentenced over a vicious and unprovoked assault on an innocent man in Warrington town centre in July last year.

He and two friends skipped a taxi queue in the early hours and, when challenged, kicked and stamped on the victim's head - rendering him unconcious and leaving him with lifelong scars.

The defendant was described as the 'prime mover and instigator' in the attack.

Members of the Jonno Joe Line who were jailed today:

• Tre Freeman, 19, of St Helens – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and was jailed for six years
• Connor Houghton, 20, of the Crescent in Lymm – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was jailed for five years and eight months
• Ellis Rigby, 19, of Reynolds Street in Latchford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and was jailed for two years and four months

Sentencing, Recorder Andrew Menary said the trio were involved in 'huge dealing' and 'delivered misery day in, day out'.

The judge added: "In your case Freeman, you plainly occupied a more senior position.

"The lines were disrupted by the police, but despite this you carried on undaunted.

"Incidentally,  the car you were seen in was stolen in a burglary.

"You and the others were out of control at this time, essentially doing what you felt like."

Palmer, of Knutsford Road in Latchford, was caged for five years and three months in March last year after the 39-year-old pleaded guilty to possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply.

Twenty-one-year-old Burrows, of Slater Street in Latchford, admitted the same charges and was handed two years behind bars.

Also sentenced today were OCGs known as the Lenny Team and the Scouse Billy Line.

READ MORE: The sentencing of the Jonno Joe Line and the Lenny Team as it happened

Mark Little – described by sources as a ‘bully’ and a ‘thorn in the side’ of police – was the leader of the Lenny Team and recruited his brother Matthew to work within the supply of drugs.

The latter sibling, a former bricklayer who now requires the use of a wheelchair after being seriously injured in a motorbike accident, was caught dealing to an undercover officer in the vicinity of the children's play area on Brickfield Park on one occasion.

Matthew Little

Flare text messages bragged that the gang had the ‘fattest bits in town’ for sale, with drugs that would ‘blow your head off’.

The ring was responsible for supplying drugs with a street value in the region of £122,000.

In March 2021, Mark Little also led police on a high-speed chase through the town while banned from driving.

Mark Little being arrested during a raid in August 2021

Officers attempted to stop his Audi A3 on Lovely Lane, but he refused to stop – subsequently running red lights, coming close to crashing into a bus, mounting the kerb and travelling at 60mph in a 30mph zone before being apprehended and testing positive for cocaine.

Anthony Westhead initially headed up the Scouse Billy Line, but this was later absorbed into the Lenny Team.

He was previously arrested in a taxi in Aberystwyth in August 2019 while transporting around £6,725 of heroin and crack cocaine between Liverpool and the Welsh town.

The sentences handed down to members of the Lenny Team and the Scouse Billy Line:

• Barry Jones, 52, of Algernon Street in Fairfield – admitted conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and was jailed for three years

• Mark Little, 38, of Town Hill in Warrington town centre – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and dangerous driving and was jailed for 11 years

• Matthew Little, 34, of Melville Close in Orford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and was jailed for three years
• Anthony Westhead, 46, of Melville Close in Orford – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply and was jailed for nine years

Mark Little was also banned from driving for seven-and-a-half years.

Sentencing the Lenny Team, the judge added: "You were involved together and separately in controlling operations involving the significant supply of class A drugs on the streets of Warrington.

"Mark Little, you were operating a graft phone known as the Lenny Line.

"It was essentially your operation.

"Your younger brother was involved in that enterprise.

"He would deal for you and on occasions was in control of the graft phone. He was trusted by you to perform that role.

Police raid Mark Little's address on Town Hill

"You, Anthony Westhead, were operating a separate graft phone in the Warrington area known as the Scouse Billy Line.

"Your path and that of Mark Little crossed, when plainly you were aware of each other’s operations.

"Thereafter I'm told, the Scouse Billy Line and the Lenny Line operated in some partnership.

"All of this came to light as a consequence of dedicated police work, in particular the actions of the undercover police officer who posed as a drug user.

"These were well organised operations.”