Pair stash steroids worth hundreds of thousands

Police recovered about £2m-worth of drugs across the pair's multiple storage sites

A gym owner and a doorman have been jailed after keeping £900,000-worth of performance-enhancing drugs in self-storage containers in north Wales.

Lee Ablitt from Newton le Willows, Merseyside, and Christopher Thompson from Wigan, Greater Manchester, stuffed steroids and other substances they planned to sell in boxes and bags piled high at the site in Rhyl, Denbighshire.

They were jailed for five years and two years, nine months respectively at Mold Crown Court on Thursday for conspiracy to supply class C drugs.

Police also found almost £500,000 in cash in the containers and further searches of locations in Merseyside and Cheshire brought the total value of drugs to about £2m.

Lee Ablitt and Christopher Thompson worked together to supply the stock to others

Officers stopped gym owner Ablitt, 51, on the M56 in October 2021 as he had been disqualified from driving, the court was told.

They found multiple boxes of class C drugs inside his car.

After arresting him, they made further enquiries which led them to two storage containers in Rhyl.

Multiple boxes of class C drugs were found in Ablitt's car in October 2021

Data recovered from Ablitt’s phone revealed that 49-year-old doorman Thompson took over supply of the drugs in 2021 after police began to take interest in Ablitt.

He told customers in a text message: "I've taken a step back to have more time to run things effectively."

Both men used their local post offices to supply the steroids.

Ablitt told police he started bodybuilding as a teenager and then bought steroids in bulk which were purchased with others to spread the cost and supplied on request.

A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said: "Some people might not think of these drugs as dangerous, but they are controlled substances which can be harmful."