EXCLUSIVE | 

Remorseless heroin dealer ‘smacked’ with ten more months on top of ten-year jail sentence

We exposed William Gracey for the first time back in May

Today at 15:19

A remorseless heroin dealer – once shot by the Provos 30 years ago for drugs – has been ‘smacked’ with ten more months on top of a ten-year jail sentence this week.

Antrim drug pusher William Gracey is already languishing in a prison in Liverpool after he was sentenced earlier this year to ten-and-a-half years for dealing huge amounts of heroin.

We exposed him for the first time back in May after it emerged he was a leading member of a massive Scouse drugs gang.

Now we can reveal while he was awaiting trial for being caught with ten kilos of deadly smack in Merseyside he was also facing a trial for dealing smack and cocaine in Co Antrim.

The 45-year-old appeared at Antrim Crown Court on Tuesday by videolnk from HMP Garth, just outside Preston, where Judge Alistair Devlin told Gracey he had to serve his sentence consecutive to the stretch he’s already doing.

He told Gracey that was because he had committed the offences in Liverpool while on bail for drug offences in Northern Ireland.

Gracey, from Altmore Close in Antrim, had earlier entered guilty pleas to being concerned in the supply of cocaine and heroin, both class A drugs, simple possession of cannabis and possessing class C drugs bromazolam and diazepam.

Prosecuting counsel Suzanne Gallagher told the court how those offences arose on 29 August last year when cops saw a white Mercedes van at the Nutts Corner roundabout.

The van pulled into a lay-by and when Gracey got out of the passenger seat, cops saw him throw a package over his shoulder into the field behind him.

She outlined how he told cops he had kicked a package of cannabis under the van and when officer retrieved the package from the field, it was found to contain three wraps of heroin and cocaine.

Gracey was searched and he was found to have £1,000 in his pocket and Ms Gallagher told the court when his home was searched, cops found boxes of prescription drugs and five empty deal bags containing traces of cocaine but also Gracey’s DNA.

The package from the field was also found to have Gracey’s DNA on it but the court heard that the supply offences were made out from text messages and social media private messages found on two of Gracey’s mobile phones seized from his home.

Arrested and interviewed Gracey refused to answer police questions and he was freed on bail but it was while on bail the dealer relocated himself to Liverpool and cops scooped him for having a whopping ten kilos of heroin.

Merseyside Police told the Sunday World back in May a huge stash of heroin was found in a cupboard in Gracey’s Liverpool flat in February.

They told us: “At around 1am on Wednesday 8th February 2023, a warrant was executed on a flat on Tithebarn Street in Liverpool city centre.

“Officers conducted a search of the address and found 10 kilograms of heroin hidden in a cupboard.

“William Gracey, 45 years, of Altmore Close, Antrim, Northern Ireland was charged with possession with intent to supply Class A (heroin and diamorphine) and B drugs (cannabis). He was remanded into custody.

“He pleaded guilty at a court hearing at Liverpool Crown Court and on Monday 24th April Gracey was sentenced to 10 years and six months years in prison.”

But we can reveal Gracey has form for working with Liverpool drug gangs and had been living between Antrim and Liverpool for over a decade.

He was convicted and jailed in 2015 at Belfast Crown Court after he was part of a plot to smuggle huge quantities of cocaine into Northern Ireland from England.

The shameless dealer was caught in 2013 with £100,000 worth of cocaine but the case stood out after it emerged a female drug mule had concealed half of the massive stash in her body.

The court was told the woman, who had travelled to Belfast on the Liverpool ferry with the drugs stashed inside her, was lucky to have survived as the package of coke had burst inside her.

Gracey was arrested and charged along with two other men and a woman after police swooped on a house in the town’s Greystone area in 2013.

Apart from Gracey, all of the other suspects were from Liverpool and they all travelled on the ferry before Gracey took them to an address in Antrim, where the drugs were discovered.

The court heard that one package was discovered in the property and a second hidden inside the 42-year-old woman.

Prosecution counsel said: “When hospital staff removed the drugs from her the package was literally about to open and she could have been in some danger.”

Gracey was the mastermind behind the smuggling operation according to police.

We revealed how Gracey was once shot by the IRA in the early 90’s for dealing drugs.

Sources in Antrim who knew him well said he told everyone he was shot in the leg because he was a Protestant and he was seeing a Catholic from the nationalist north Belfast area, Ardoyne.

“Truth was he was shot for dealing drugs back in the 90’s,” said a source. “He was a low-level dealer back then but he’s clearly climbed up the ladder to have got ten years in England.

“The Provos shot him in the leg and warned him not to be dealing drugs in nationalist areas again.”

But despite a number of convictions for dealing drugs Gracey has continued to ply his trade selling deadly illegal drugs and specialised in trafficking heroin and cocaine.

Sources told the Sunday World Gracey was believed to be one of Merseyside’s biggest heroin smugglers.

“The Merseyside Police have been after Gracey for years and couldn’t believe their luck when they found 10k of smack in his flat,” said a source.

“He was caught bang-to-rights. They only found the heroin three months ago and he’s already held his hands up and started a lengthy jail term but no doubt he won’t learn his lesson this time either.

“They are delighted to have him off the streets of Liverpool. He deserves to be locked up for a long, long time.”