The Liverpool-based member of a gang who tried to bring a large quantity of cannabis to the Isle of Man on a fishing boat has been jailed for 12 years.

Liam Dunne was described as one of the leaders of the gang – although not the main figure, who has still not been located – which used the fishing vessel Boy Shayne to bring 15.5kg of cannabis and 100 vapes laced with cannabis into Douglas harbour.

Evidence showed Dunne, 39, was the man who handed over the drugs to Jordan Corkill at Whitehaven on November 17, 2023, before Corkill skippered the boat back to Douglas.

Dunne was also linked to a package sent to the island containing heroin with a potential street value of almost £70,000.

He appeared before the Court of General Gaol Delivery on Tuesday, having previously admitted being concerned in the production of heroin, cannabis and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-laced vapes, as well as participating in a criminal organisation.

In relation to the heroin offence, Roger Kane, prosecuting, told the court that on July 17, 2023, a suspicious package was intercepted by police and found to contain 277g of heroin with a street value of between £34,653 and £69,600.

Investigations found Dunne acted as a ‘conduit’, using a burner phone to contact Shaun Milligan, who was involved on the Isle of Man, and an unknown individual in Liverpool.

Milligan was jailed for 11 years in February 2024, along with Frank Harrison, who received seven years, after the parcel was addressed to him.

Mr Kane described Dunne as a ‘facilitator’ who was ‘high up the ranks’.

In relation to the cannabis offence, the operation to bring in 15.5kg of cannabis worth £300,000 and 100 vapes laced with a cannabis derivative took weeks of planning.

Jamie Smith had been in contact with Boy Shayne owner John Skillen for five weeks before the attempt to smuggle the drugs from Whitehaven to the island on November 17, 2023.

Rather than sail the vessel himself, Skillen asked his captain, Corkill, to skipper the boat.

The plan was to return to Laxey Bay, where a rigid inflatable boat would bring the drugs ashore. Harrison recruited Halligan-Bunce to drive the RIB.

However, once Halligan-Bunce realised he was involved in a drug smuggling operation, he ran the RIB aground in Castletown.

This forced a change of plan and the Boy Shayne was instead sailed into Battery Pier in Douglas, where officers from the Serious and Organised Crime Unit were waiting.

Dunne was linked to the operation after police bugged Smith’s hotel room, from where he was directing events from the island.

Officers also tracked phones linked to Dunne, showing he travelled from Walton in Liverpool to Whitehaven on the day the drugs were exchanged.

Dunne was found to have received £139,000 in illicit bank transfers between January 2021 and November 2023, including £83,010 from Manx residents, many of whom were involved in the island’s illegal drug trade.

Dunne, of Burlington Street, Liverpool, was arrested on August 17, 2025, after returning from Spain, where he had been living for eight months after absconding. He had been on bail for other drug offences, which have since been withdrawn.

In mitigation, advocate Ian Kermode said Dunne is a father of four who had worked as a sign writer until his initial arrest in 2019 and had no previous convictions for drug offences.

He said: ‘My client takes full responsibility for his offending and is very sorry for becoming involved.’

Mr Kermode also said Dunne had supported a charity helping young people following the murder of his cousin Lewis, who was 16 when he was shot in a case of mistaken identity.

Deemster Graeme Cook told Dunne: ‘You were a leading figure in trafficking drugs to the Isle of Man and removing the proceeds of that trafficking back to the UK.

‘You made the arrangements and got others to do your dirty work. While you were not the overall leader, you played a very significant role.’

Dunne was jailed for six years for the heroin offence, four years for the cannabis offence and two years for participating in a criminal organisation, all to run consecutively. He was also handed a further one-year sentence for the THC offence, to run concurrently.