When Ian Spackman was sat watching his home being stripped of the luxury goods he bought with drug money, he looked on with his feet up on the coffee table. Until it was removed.

Then he was told to stand up so the sofa he had been sitting on could also be taken.

Seven miles from that scene, on the same morning, Marc Campbell was watching as officers pulled apart his plush Thornton home .

The state-of-the-art gym equipment, the pool table, the signed football shirts and the designer wardrobes were all getting hauled out of the luxury Ince Road pad.

As his partner witnessed the flash cars being placed on trailers, her wrist caught the attention of the police in attendance.

The bling was too glamorous to hide. She was asked to take it off, leading to a Cartier diamond jewellery haul worth £10,000 being seized.

The next day the gang appeared in court charged with drugs offences .

Spackman, to whom making £80,000 was just business 'ticking over', was reduced to wearing custody slippers.

A ladies Rolex, seized from the home of Thornton drugs gang member Marc Campbell. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police
A ladies Rolex, seized from the home of Thornton drugs gang member Marc Campbell. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police

All of this was part of the humiliation of those who had made fortunes through crime.

It was possible because of a newly-introduced reversal of the law.

WAS THAT ROLEX BOUGHT WITH HONEST CASH?

Proceeds of crime legislation used to dictate that, for detectives to seize possessions, they had to be able to prove those goods had been paid for by a shady character's ill-gotten gains.

But that rule has been flipped on its head - it is now up to the criminals to prove they paid for their flash cars, Rolex watches and Dolce and Gabbana shoes with legitimate cash.

When Merseyside Police raided the homes of Spackman, Campbell and co they exercised their powers under this new approach for the first time.

Ian Spackman, 37 and of Rosslyn Avenue in Maghull, was jailed for 17 years and four months for drugs offences. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police
Ian Spackman, 37 and of Rosslyn Avenue in Maghull, was jailed for 17 years and four months for drugs offences. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police
Marc Campbell, 41 and of Ince Road in Thornton, jailed for 14 years for drugs offences. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police
Marc Campbell, 41 and of Ince Road in Thornton, jailed for 14 years for drugs offences. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police

From Campbell they seized the Cartier diamonds, two Rolex watches, the TVs and signed football shirts that lined the walls of his games room, and the contents of his home gym - and his partner's wardrobe.

They even took a £240 bottle of Louis Roederer Champagne.

From Paul Hornby, another of the gang, they took another Rolex and at least five boxes of footwear from Lanvin - the website of which displays the cheapest pair of trainers at around the £300 mark.

Spackman lost his BMW X5, among other things.

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THE MEMORIES CAN'T BE ERASED - BUT THE PRISON CELL DREAMS HAVE BEEN TARNISHED

They could not take back the luxury holidays - Spackman spent Christmas abroad over 2015/16 and 16/17, in Thailand and Dubai.

During the 18 month police investigation he also spent seven weeks in Barcelona - the starting point of his cannabis importation plot - and rented an apartment with underworld associate James Gannon in Malaga at the cost of 11,000 euros, plus a 2,000 euro deposit, for 11 months.

Pool table in the home of Thornton drugs gang member Marc Campbell. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police
Pool table in the home of Thornton drugs gang member Marc Campbell. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police

Gannon spent £800 solely on accommodation during one weekend trip to Paris, Campbell visited the Dominican Republic twice while Peter Mulvaney, a key man in the cannabis conspiracy, was in Menorca when the fourth delivery of the Class B drug arrived at the north Liverpool industrial unit he had rented for his fake plumbing firm.

That company was the false front used to cover the cannabis deliveries and Campbell was due to get £4,000 for signing for it in Mulvaney's absence.

Unfortunately for him the police were watching - they raided the unit just after he received the haul and consequently were able to link him to Spackman and his gang's antics.

James Gannon, 36 and of Sunbury Road in Anfield, was jailed for 22 years for drugs offences. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police
James Gannon, 36 and of Sunbury Road in Anfield, was jailed for 22 years for drugs offences. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police
Tom Collins, 34, of Waterloo Warehouse in the city centre, was jailed for 16 years for drugs offences. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police
Tom Collins, 34, of Waterloo Warehouse in the city centre, was jailed for 16 years for drugs offences. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police

While police cannot take back the memories of those luxury getaways, they have now left the nine main players in the gang with little to return to when they are eventually released from prison.

It used to be that drug dealers could seek comfort in their families continuing to enjoy the nice cars and clothes while they languished in jail.

And they could of course dream about returning to them.

Now all of that stuff is locked up in a removal firm's storage unit.

The police have possession of it after earning the consent of the courts and, unless it can be proved those items were paid for through honest money, they will be officially stripped from their former owners.

When the paperwork is signed, at the end of proceeds of crime procedures, it will be auctioned off and the cash raised will go back into funding operations to take down other gangs.

SOPHISTICATED SPACKMAN RAN EMPIRE ON ENCRYPTED PHONES AND ANTI-SURVEILLANCE TACTICS

In the case of this gang, the operation was substantial - this outfit knew what it was doing.

Spackman was a sophisticated criminal.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that he knew about police surveillance tactics.

He and his associates communicated through PGP - pretty good privacy - phones.

The devices cost in excess of £1,000 each and the messages sent between them were encrypted - making them far harder to decipher.

A signed Sugar Ray Leonard boxing glove seized from the home of Thornton drugs gang member Marc Campbell. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police
A signed Sugar Ray Leonard boxing glove seized from the home of Thornton drugs gang member Marc Campbell. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police

Spackman also recognised the movements of professional agents.

He did not always get it right - sometimes challenging innocent members of the public - but on at least one occasion he correctly identified and challenged an officer tracking his movements.

Several gang members also drove so as to avoid being tailed - officers monitoring their movements became used to random changes in speed and direction.

But over the course of the 18 month investigation police were able to put together enough evidence for just over 20 people to be jailed for a combined total of more than 220 years.

The nine Merseyside ringleaders, two of which were recorded plotting to smuggle cannabis to the Isle of Man outside, incredibly, Albert Dock restaurant Smuggler’s Cove , received just over 130 years between them.

OPERATION STARLIGHT FLOWED FROM THE FERNHILL BUST

The operation that led to those sentences was codenamed Starlight and followed the mission that ripped the heart from the latest incarnation of the notorious Fernhill Gang.

After former leaders David Hewson and Liam Johnson were busted the gang moved from Bootle to a new base on the Hereford Drive estate in Netherton.

There the Shiels brothers ran riot before being locked up.

Those in charge of that probe were then ordered to find out who the next level criminals who may have allowed Fernhill to survive were.

And the evidence led detectives to Spackman.

An associate of Johnson and James and Kyle Shiels, his name had been known by Merseyside Police.

But at 37 and with no previous convictions, he had not been on the radar when it came to serious criminality.

Over the next 18 months they would eventually come to see him as one of Liverpool’s most significant underworld figures.

Investigators showed how he controlled the flow of up to 50kg of cocaine over the 18 months they were watching.

That cocaine went to gangs on Merseyside, in Blackpool, Barrow and Cleveland.

He set up his own cannabis smuggling racket - using Mulvaney’s firm to bring in 200kg hidden in toilets and cat litter.

He did not get his hands dirty though. His associates handled the goods and the contact with the lesser gangs reliant on his distribution network.

A NETWORK THAT OPERATED WELL ABOVE THE STREETS

Spackman’s was a network of dealers who operated above the street level.

His associates did not run vulnerable kids to county towns to sell drugs, or operate graft phones and runners.

They sold the drugs to the gangs who did that.

Image courtesy of Mereyside Police
Signed footballs and a signed LFC shirt seized from the home of Thornton drugs gang member Marc Campbell. Image courtesy of Mereyside Police

And they handled millions of pounds of illicit substances. They made huge sums as a result.

Drugs worth £1.25m were seized in the operation.

£250,000 in cash was also recovered.

And the goods taken from the crooks’ homes have been valued at £200,000.

THE PAIN WILL CONTINUE EVEN WHEN THEY ARE FREE

But the destruction of their empire does not stop there.

Police will be seeking to severely restrict the key players even after they are out of jail.

Serious Organised Crime Prevention Orders are to be applied for.

These orders, reserved for the highest-profile criminals, can stop a subject from traveling abroad for up to five years after their release.

Every mobile phone they have access to may have to be registered with the authorities and they could have their contact with each other restricted despite being at liberty.

By stripping them of their wealth and continuing to monitor them even after their jail terms, police hope they will convince the criminals - and anyone thinking of trying to follow in their footsteps - that crime really does not pay.

Following the sentencing Detective Chief Inspector Steve Reardon said: “The message is clear - we are relentless in our pursuit of those involved in serious organised crime and will continue to do all we can to put our communities first and remove the threat, risk and harm these individuals bring to our streets.

Peter Mulvaney, 35 and of Larchfield Road in Thornton, was jailed for 19 years for drugs offences. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police
Peter Mulvaney, 35 and of Larchfield Road in Thornton, was jailed for 19 years for drugs offences. Image courtesy of Merseyside Police
Paul Hornby, 40 and of Pemberton Road in Old Swan, was jailed for 13 years and 4 months for drugs offences. Images courtesy of Merseyside Police
Paul Hornby, 40 and of Pemberton Road in Old Swan, was jailed for 13 years and 4 months for drugs offences. Images courtesy of Merseyside Police

“I want to take this opportunity to reassure residents that when we receive information about drug related crime and gun crime we will act.

"In relation to drug dealing, we often have to carry out an extensive operation, which can take some months, to gather evidence to ensure that when we get those involved to court the only option available is a prison sentence.

“I want to reassure our communities that Merseyside Police is relentless in its pursuit of those involved in serious and organised crime and we will do all we can to find those involved and put them before the courts to keep our communities safe.

“But we cannot do this without the public.

"We rely on our communities to tell us when there are criminal issues in their area so that we can take positive action and protect our communities.

"Any information supplied to us in relation to serious and organised crime will be acted upon.”