Walter Finch
THIS is the moment British crime lord Jamie Rothwell skips and dances as Spanish police march him away in handcuffs.
Rothwell was tracked down and arrested in Barcelona in May 2020, only to be later arrested again in Amsterdam in December 2020, before being extradited to the UK in March 2021. Dutch police caught him while he was travelling in a taxi in Amsterdam.
The 38-year-old from Salford, Greater Manchester, was recently sent down for a 43-year sentence for masterminding a €30.7 million (£26m) drugs and weapons empire.
Rothwell, recently featured in the Channel 4 documentary Operation Darkphone: Murder by Text, was one of hundreds of gangsters exposed when French police cracked the supposedly secure EncroChat network in 2020.
Operating under the codename livelong, he boasted of sending ‘constant’ consignments of cocaine, ketamine, and even heavy weaponry – from AK-47 rifles to rocket-propelled grenades – back to the UK.
From a luxury Barcelona apartment with sweeping city views, he ordered violent attacks on rivals, including a shooting in Warrington in April 2020 where David Barnes, stepfather of mobster Liam Byrne, was gunned down on his doorstep.
Intercepted EncroChat messages revealed Rothwell’s chilling mindset: “When you have fire in your heart you don’t stop… you get addicted, you lose everyone, you turn cold, no emotions.”
Tracked down later that year, Rothwell’s arrest was caught on camera, with the gangster trying to play the clown as officers closed in.
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He was extradited to the UK, where he admitted conspiracies to supply Class A and B drugs, possess firearms with intent to endanger life, and cause grievous bodily harm.
Judge John Potter described him as ‘at the top of the organisation’ and said his crimes ‘graphically illustrate your willingness to cause loss and misery to others.’
His 43-year sentence includes 18 years for drugs and 25 years for firearms offences, to be served consecutively.
Nine other members of his gang were also jailed, with ringleaders Craig Makinson and Callum Morris each handed 38 years.
Det Ch Insp Nick Henderson said Rothwell was an ‘arrogant and egotistical’ gangster who believed he was untouchable: “While he lapped up the Spanish sun, his associates carried out his orders and searched the streets of Warrington for those he had intended to harm.”
One victim was left with lifelong injuries and ‘will never be able to walk the same again.’
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