County lines ringleader who slashed Shropshire woman's face to 'spread fear' handed more jail time
A county lines ringleader who slashed a Shropshire woman's face to "send a message" to others in the crime group will now spend even longer in jail.
Adam McArdle was "top of the tree" in the "Boris line", an operation peddling crack cocaine and heroin into Oswestry from Liverpool.
The 28-year-old, who was already serving a life sentence with a minimum term of eight-and-a-half years for slashing a woman in the face over a £500 drug debt, was sentenced for a string of other charges related to the organised crime group.
It comes after his fellow senior gangs members were jailed earlier this week.
Shrewsbury Crown Court heard that McArdle's main role was to "spread fear" to make drug dealers and youths who they were exploiting "toe the line".
One such occasion was when he left a low-level dealer in Oswestry with "horrific and life-changing" injuries after slashing her face as a punishment for not paying her debts. He was sentenced for that crime at Stafford Crown Court in 2020.
Benjamin Douglas-Jones, prosecuting, said: "He was the directing mind and force of the operation," and that the line was so busy it would do 100 drug deals a day.
