The head of the drug dealer’s girlfriend recruited her family to the gang because she’s too afraid to lose her lavish lifestyle.
Jodie Bowie’s greatest fear is to lose her lavish lifestyle of $136,000 worth of designer gear and a huge pile of cash, so she recruited her family to keep living glamorously. The girlfriend who runs her boyfriend’s illegal drug network recruited her family after the pair met in jail.
Jonathan Walsh, 33, who is a network head of smuggled cocaine and heroin from the northwest of England to the East Midlands claimed that, while serving a fourteen years sentence in prison for armed robbery met Bowie on Facebook before she recruited her mother, father, and brothers to his boyfriend’s gang.
The Court heard that Bowie is too afraid to lose her lifestyle that would see her lose the richness she used on spending $2, 500 on clothes as the police found the designer’s gear during their raids with a pile of $20,307 in cash.
Items confiscated from Bowie included a green Moncler quilted coat worth an estimated $2,300, a Givenchy handbag and purse worth $2,700, Guiseppe Zanotti shoes worth $729, a pair of Balenciaga trainers worth $1,000, and trendy Hunter Wellingtons worth $200.
Bowie tried to claim at trial that she had bought many of the designer items at “below the market value” before she met her lover. Other designer-labeled goodies included Dolce and Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Versace.
But the designer clothes, expensive jewelry, high-powered cars, and cosmetic surgery appointments were all funded by the “sophisticated” drug money supplies line. When Walsh got out, he moved in with Bowie in Failsworth, Manchester from where he headed up his drugs operation.
The prosecution told the court that when one of Walsh’s couriers, Bowie’s uncle, Joseph Grey was arrested, Bowie was so determined to keep things going that she enlisted her mom, dad, and brother to help with moving the cash generated by the racket.
The court heard that when his uncle got arrested, Bowie stepped in tasking her mom Janice, dad David, and brother Lee to ferry the cash across to Nottinghamshire. Family members were easily recruited because of the level of “trust” the scheme depended upon.
The court heard that Bowie was fearless when it came to spending money which caused her family to be sentenced in a Manchester Crown Court case, except for Bowie’s brother who is still awaiting his sentence.
Their main Referenced in the evidence was the messages on her phone that showed her making arrangements with Walsh to spend around $6,800 on cosmetic surgery.
Prosecutor Tom Challinor said: “Over a very short period of time Walsh began to accrue possessions of a lavish lifestyle, including Rolex watches, designer clothing, and driving expensive cars at $1,767 a month. They decked out their house in lavish decor which indicated that sort of lifestyle.”
“When Grey was arrested and his (Walsh) operation was affected, she knew she had to do something about it – and that something was to recruit her family, namely her mother, brother, and dad who assisted in the operation. When it came to spending money, she was fearless,” he added.
Manchester Crown Court heard Walsh, smuggled cocaine and heroin to Nottinghamshire as the head of a drug dealing network. He used various other people to do his “dirty work”, like trafficking drugs and cash, including Bowie’s uncle, Grey.
Walsh was jailed for 15 years, while Anthony Jones and Joseph Raymond Grey got eight-and-a-half years of imprisonment. Kaylum Davies, 24, and Noel Walsh, 38, were jailed for three years, while Geoffrey Keenan, 54, got two years and four months.
Bowie got a suspended sentence as did her dad, David Bowie, and mom Janice, along with Chelsea Davies, 28. Jodie’s brother Lee is due to be sentenced at a later date.
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