Police killer jailed over £13m drugs plot

A man who killed an off-duty police officer in Liverpool is back in prison over a £13m cocaine and heroin trafficking operation.

Timmy Donovan, 40, was jailed alongside another man for the manslaughter of PC Neil Doyle, who was on a Christmas night out when he was attacked in 2014.

After he was released on licence Donovan became part of a gang who were sentenced at Manchester Crown Court over a large-scale drugs conspiracy.

The court heard that Donovan is "immensely remorseful and regretful" over his involvement in the attack that killed PC Doyle.

Donovan, who had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to conspiracy to supplying 23.7kg of cocaine, 1kg of heroin and laundering between £10-13m, was sentenced to 14 years and six months.

Gary Cathcart, head of financial investigation at the National Crime Agency (NCA), said: "Donovan is a dangerous individual who returned to criminality as soon as he left prison."

It can now be reported that Donovan was referred to as "copkiller" by other serious criminals on Merseyside.

The nickname emerged during court proceedings around a notorious Knowsley-based gang known as the Huyton Firm, headed by Vincent Coggins.

Donovan had acted as a "go-between" when Coggins wrongly accused another Liverpool drug-dealer of robbing cocaine worth £1m from one of his stash-houses.

Donovan was not charged over any involvement with the Huyton Firm's activities, but his own drug-dealing was also exposed when police infiltrated the supposedly secure Encrochat encrypted messaging network.

The NCA said messages to and from his Encrochat handle, Astralcleaner, and other evidence revealed the gang laundered up to £13m.

It found spreadsheets on Donovan's computers detailing huge sums of money owed by him and to him.

He also discussed shipments of cocaine and heroin with other criminals.

The NCA said most of the doors at Donovan's home in Walsingham Road in Liverpool were specially reinforced when police arrested him.

Along with Donavon, five others were also sentenced.

Arron O'Sullivan, 41, of Deepfield Drive in Liverpool, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for money laundering and supplying cocaine.

James Vaughan of Green Lane in Liverpool, fled to Spain in 2020 but was extradited last year and was jailed for four years and three months for money laundering.

Christopher Roper, 41, of Allerton Road in Liverpool, was jailed for three years and 10 months for money laundering.

The NCA said Roper would store cash at the garage where he worked, Wavertree Car Centre in Wavertree, Liverpool.

Kenneth Kean, 59, of Huyton House Road in Liverpool and Paul Duncan, 58, of Gentwood Road in Liverpool each got two years in prison, suspended for two years, also for money laundering.

Kean and Duncan were also ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

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