A ‘well organised’ operation
A woman stored a deadly Glock handgun and ammunition in the bedroom of her south Manchester home for a drugs gang. Giovanna Edmondson, 35, had never been convicted of a crime when cops raided her home on Caythorpe Street in May last year.
Officers found a powerful automatic Glock handgun, which has been forensically linked to four shootings, including one fatality. It was hidden inside in a large cardboard box being used as a makeshift bedside table.
Police also found a regular magazine; one extended magazine; and 18 rounds of compatible ammunition – as well as a small amount of cocaine – prosecutor Neil Fryman told Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court on Tuesday (April 1).
Analysis of the weapon found the DNA of two members of a county lines drugs gang – a rapper who had glorified guns, Clint Curtis, and Jerome Williams – on the trigger.
Now all three, and a fourth defendant, have been jailed for their part in the gang, which ran the ‘Lex’ drugs line.
The line marketed heroin and cocaine by sending out bulk ‘flare messages’ from the number to potential customers, according to Mr Fryman. He said at its peak, the line was reaching 3,300 potential customers a day.
Between October 14, 2023, and May 22, 2024, investigators estimated more than three kilos of class A drugs with a street value of £300,000 were sold, the court heard.
Police mounted a surveillance operation which captured Clint Curtis driving high-end hire cars, among them a white Mercedes CLA, and other members of the operation.
The gang was said to have used ‘safe houses’ on Peak Bank in Romiley and St Bees Close in Moss Side to store and supply drugs. Police found crack cocaine from a bedside drawer during a raid of one home on St Bees Close, as well as a bank card and driving licence belonging to Williams.
The court heard there was evidence that Edmondson has conducted ‘reconnaissance’ at St Bees Close for Williams. When cops raided a property on Caythorpe Street in Moss Side, where Edmondson was living with her sister, cops found the Glock handgun in the cardboard box beside Edmondson’s bed.
The bedroom was ‘in a very untidy state’, but the gun was stored in a ‘semi-opaque’ plastic box ‘a bit like an Ikea box’ which was being used as a bedside table, said Mr Fryman. The ‘working’ .45 calibre Glock, magazines and ammunition were found inside.
Also found inside the room were ‘snap bags’ and letters addressed to Edmondson. Following the search, police found a number of mobile phone numbers linked to the drugs op suddenly ‘dropped’ and weren’t used again, said the prosecutor.
The DNA of Clint Curtis and Williams found on the trigger was ‘overwhelming evidence’ of their connection to the weapon, said Mr Fryman. Edmondson’s DNA was not found on the weapon, the court heard.
After the discovery, police carried out raids at three ‘safe houses’ at Peak Bank in Romiley.
They found the occupant of one, a woman, had been in contact with the ‘Lex’ line. Inside another property were two ‘admitted class A drug users’ in the ‘squalid’ home, one of whom had been in contact with the line.
In the third property, police found 158g of ‘adulterant’ which is used to bulk up the quantity of the drugs being sold.
The occupant of one of the homes sent a text to someone about ‘Lex’ and the gun. It read: “You just need to be careful with him coz he clearly on rampage and with hearing [about the Glock conversation] my nerves can’t take it. Might just be a scare tactic but you never know xxxx.”
Clint Curtis appeared in two ‘autobiographical’ rap videos in which he referenced possessing a Glock gun, said Mr Fryman, who described the weapon as ‘very hot property’.
The court heard another member of the gang, Curtis’ cousin David Curtis, sent a text to a pal in which he says he had asked his cousin for ‘seven tons a week no more no less’.
The message continued: “I want cash in hand every Sunday. He’s just been laughing down the phone crying.” David Curtis described the work he was doing for his cousin as ‘proper slavery’.
David Curtis was said to have demanded to be paid £700-a-week for his services.
‘Well organised’
Ben Summers, defending Clint Curtis, characterised his client’s role as ‘a little way ahead of a street dealer’.
He added that it would be ‘wholly wrong’ to count the previous occasions when the Glock was used against the defendant. Clint Curtis had obtained work making traffic signals but had fallen back into a life of crime, he said.
Ian Jobling, mitigating for Williams, said his client ‘was a follower not a leader’. Emily Woodside, for David Curtis, said her client had been working ‘under direction’ from others and had been paid a ‘salary’.
Des Jenson, mitigating for Edmondson, said her client had been a hairdresser but had ‘fallen a long way’ and was ‘vulnerable’ She described Edmondson’s mental health difficulties and how, in an interview with probation officers, that growing up in Moss Side was ‘s*** for a long time’.
Mr Jenson said there as no evidence his client had taken the gun out of the box and that she had acted under the direction of others who had ‘exploited her vulnerabilities’.
Jailing the four defendants, Judge Neil Usher told the court he was satisfied Clint Curtis and Jerome Williams had played a ‘leading role’ in the drugs supply op although the former was ‘slightly higher’ in the pecking order.
The judge added: “Both of you ran a business, a well-organised drugs line and you needed a deadly firearm in order to protect your illegal and dangerous trade running a drugs operation.” The pair’s drugs line was on a ‘commercial scale’, he said. He said David Curtis had played a ‘significant role’ in the drugs supply op.
He told the trio: “You fed off and encouraged your customers’ desperation and addiction for no reason other than your own financial gain so you could live what you thought was going to be the high life with expensive watches and clothing.”
Addressing Edmondson, he said: “It’s a tragedy you allowed yourself to be drawn into a world of serious offending at that time of your life.”
Clint Curtis, of Beamish Close in Ardwick, who has a string of previous convictions and was licence for drug crimes at the time, was jailed for 19 years and four months after he was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of ammunition with intent to endanger life.
Jerome Williams, 30, of Lagos Close in Moss Side, was jailed for 12 years after he was convicted of the same offences.
David Curtis, 28, of no fixed abode, was jailed for six years after he was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Giovanna Edmondson, of 35, of Caythorpe Street in Moss Side, was jailed for five years after she admitted possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of ammunition with intent to endanger life.