A GANGSTER organised a disastrous drug raid which was compared to a plot line from a Guy Ritchie movie.

Richard Caswell, 41, known as "Will Young" due to a physicalresemblance to the pop star, led a violent raid on a stash house when a father and son were attacked with an axe and machete.

Caswell burst into the stash house with brothers Jason and Craig Cox after a junior member of the crew knocked on the door posing as a delivery driver.

Sinister CCTV footage later emerged of the gang arriving and then leaving with over £1m worth of cocaine during lockdown.

However Ben Monks-Gorton, who posed as the delivery driver, dropped his surgical mask during the fight, leaving evidence behind inside the house on Croxdale Road West, Liverpool.

At around 9.30am on the morning of May 23 2020, one of victims phoned 999 and said: “That these lads just came into the house
and started stabbing me dad… and there’s blood everywhere”.

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Jason Cox, 37, told his brother Lee, 39, that that they had "tracked them (victims) up" and had to "chop the c*** up badly in his gaffe."

Caswell and the Cox brothers then tried to sell the stolen coke to criminals in Manchester. But the crew relied on the EncroChat phone network, which police had penetrated earlier that year.

Cops could now read the messages the Cox gangs were sending about their Manchester based drug business.

It was only a matter of time before cops were able to arrest Caswell, the Cox brothers and their associates lower down the drug chain.

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Caswell, a notorious figure in Liverpool, was jailed for 17 years in 2005 for his role in a wave of terrifying car bombings across the city when family homes and even a police station were blown up.

The raid on the stash house has led to a major fall out between gangs in Liverpool and Manchester.

Manchester Crown Court heard the stolen drugs belonged to the "biggest firm in Liverpool".

But over time he became embroiled with a violent drug gang who used him to let off car bombs in the city.

Jason Cox and Caswell were both now said to under duress due to their involvement in the raid.

Caswell was stabbed in the neck last year at Strangeways prison in Manchester when a group of lags burst into his cell.

Caswell, who grew up in the Kirkdale area of the city, started out as a glass collector at a city centre nightclub.

Now a Liverpool man who knows Caswell has pinned the mess surrounding the stash house raid on him.

He said to The Sun: "What a disaster you could not have made this up. It's all straight from a Guy Ritchie movie.

"Caswell is the superstar here, managing to get himself locked up along with some of Liverpool's finest. He is a walking disaster zone.

"He is the sort of fella you have a cup of coffee with and end up doing 20 for conspiracy.

"They should build a special prison just for him."

The Sun now can now reveal how Caswell and the Cox brothers were involved in a dangerous game of deception which eventually
consumed them.

Caswell only agreed to buy coke from a powerful Liverpool dealer so his gang could locate their stash house.

This is a hub where a drug gang store large amounts of drugs in what appears to be a normal family home.

As Caswell coined it: "we need this f*****’s stash”.

The gang agreed to buy the coke but managed to fit the dealer's car with a tracking device, which revealed the location of the stash house.

Drug gangs often use tracking devices to keep tabs on rivals.

Caswell had told the Cox brothers that it was a risky business that they had to "get right."

Caswell, who had met one of the Cox brothers inside the prison system, warned them that they were stealing coke from the heaviest drug crew in Liverpool.

After the raid they were hugely aware of potential threats to their own lives.

But at one point Jason Cox, in a show of bravado, told his brother that he was prepared to drive over to Liverpool and "empty a clip" into the face of the man who controlled the Liverpool gang.

Earlier this year The Sun exclusively revealed how Caswell considered kidnapping the daughter of a drug dealer and holding her to ransom. The kidnapping of children is a tactic associated with gangs in Mexico and Latin America.

He said: "When the lockdown over and they start working again we kidnap lads birds daughter, we want 2 mil they get 100kg at a time”.

After the drug raid Caswell fled to a plush apartment on Queenstown Road in South Lambeth.

When police arrested him they found £98k in cash, a rose gold Rolex Skydweller watch, and his passport.

During a hearing at Manchester Crown Court on Friday Caswell was jailed for seven years for admitting conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis, and conspiracy to possess criminal property.

Jason Cox was ordered to serve 14 years and eight months behind bars after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis, conspiracy to possess criminal property and conspiracy to commit robbery.

Craig Cox was sentenced to 13 years and six months in jail after also pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis, conspiracy to possess criminal property and conspiracy to commit robbery; he also admitted two breaches of a Serious Crime Prevention Order.

Lee Cox, from Swinton, has been sentenced to eight years for admitting conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis, and conspiracy to possess criminal property.

Jason Cox's lawyer said he will now have to 'look over his shoulder' for 'most of the rest of his life'.

Caswell's lawyer said he is under threat in prison and has become a "target".

Last year several of the Cox brothers associates were jailed. Ben Monks-Gorton, was jailed for six years on 25 April 2022 after admitting conspiracy to commit robbery.

Michael Nevin was locked up for nine years and eight months admitting conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis, and conspiracy to possess criminal property.

Jack Brownsill denied conspiracy to supply cannabis, conspiracy to possess criminal property, and being concerned in supplying cannabis before being convicted of all three offences by a jury following a
trial in February 2022.

He was jailed for four years and three months.

Michael Martin, 37, from Salford, was jailed for three years in 2021 after admitting one count of money laundering.

Speaking after the sentencing on Friday Detective Inspector Roger Smethurst, of GMP’s Serious and Organised Crime Group, said: "The Cox Organised Crime Group are ruthless, career criminals who have successfully been brought to justice.

"Operation Venetic provided a valuable insight into their multi-kilo drug dealing and other criminal operations including a brutal robbery in Liverpool.

"GMP and our law enforcement partners relentlessly pursued this group even when they attempted to evade capture both in London and Spain.

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"Due to the quality of the evidence put before the court they were left with no choice but to plead guilty to their crimes.

"Communities in the North West will be safer with this group behind bars for many years to come."

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