A FORMER TNS footballer who played in a famous Champions League tie against Liverpool now faces seven years behind bars for his role as a key figure in a county lines drugs gang.

John Lawless represented the Park Hall-based side from 2005 until 2007, and came off the bench in the team's 3-0 defeat at Anfield in front of 45,000 spectators in 2005.

But now Lawless is facing up to a lengthy prison term after being arrested in Hull early this year, with police saying that his gang was flooding the East Yorkshire city of Hull with heroin and crack cocaine.

Lawless, 39, of Bowlalley Lane, Hull, admitted possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine at Hull Crown Court earlier this month.

He has now been sentenced to seven years in jail.

A total of ten men and women, including Lawless, operating as one organised crime network have been jailed this year, with another five awaiting sentencing and one awaiting trial.

Lawless was described by police as having been a lieutenant for the ringleader Daniel Condliff, 26, of Old Barn Lane in Liverpool. Lawless had 11 dealers operating underneath him on the streets of Hull.

DS Matthew Grantham, leading the Humberside Police investigation, said: "We believe that by stopping this gang's activities we have prevented significant amounts of heroin and crack cocaine from being sold on the streets of Hull and the associated crime and anti-social behaviour that goes with this kind of offending.

"We know the impact this has on our communities and that's why we will do everything we can to find those who are responsible and bring them to justice.

"Hopefully the sentences handed down to these two men, and those working beneath them, will serve as a warning to others looking to come to our towns and cities to deal drugs that they're not welcome here and we won't tolerate it.

"I would like to thank our colleagues in Merseyside for their support, as well as the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre, which provided a massive support throughout the investigation.

"I would also like to thank all the people who contact us with information about drug dealing and drug-related crime in their areas.

"It's thanks to you that we can put together successful operations like this one and make it clear that if you're looking to sell drugs, Humberside is not an easy target."

At the time of his arrest, 39 Lawless was manager of north Wales side Prestatyn, and during his playing career he represented non-league sides including Marine FC, Burscough and Ellesmere Port-based Vauxhall Motors.

He was sacked days after his arrest, never having managed a competitive game for Prestatyn, by whom he was appointed in October, because the Welsh league had been in a Covid-enforced shutdown.

The operation was run jointly with Merseyside Police.