The MMA fighter is accused of involvement in a 2015 plot to traffic cocaine and amphetamine between Merseyside and South Wales
Mixed martial arts fighter Paul Cahoon(Image: Trinity Mirror Copyright)
A mixed martial arts fighter spent nearly a decade living in Dubai after a series of seizures of drugs from a gang in which he was allegedly a “senior figure”. Paul Cahoon went on trial at Liverpool Crown Court today accused of involvement in a plot to traffic cocaine and amphetamine between Merseyside and South Wales in 2015, the year he moved abroad before being extradited back to the UK during 2024.
Stephen McNally, prosecuting, told a jury of six men and six women on Tuesday that the 47-year-old, of no fixed address but from St Helens, “had some notoriety” due to his “successful MMA competing career”, during which he went by the nickname “Boom Boom”. The court heard during the prosecution’s opening this afternoon that he was linked to hauls of illicit class A and B substances worth up to £83,000 via meetings and mobile phone contact with supposed co-conspirators.
One of these came on the evening of January 27 2015, when a Ford Transit van was stopped by police on Lunt’s Heath Road in Widnes. Driver Michael Challoner was described by officers as being “extremely nervous” and “stuttering his words” at this time, with his hands seen “shaking”.
The vehicle was initially seized due to him having no insurance but, when subsequently searched, it was found to contain a package of 248 grams of cocaine, worth between £7,440 and £25,000, concealed behind a wooden panel between the cab and the rear. This parcel was also found to contain the DNA of a second man, Adam Parkes, who Cahoon had visited at his home address earlier on the same date.
The following day, January 28, the defendant had a face to face meeting with Parkes and a third male, James Bush. This was said to be a “debrief based on the fact the drugs had been intercepted by police”.
Then, on April 27 the same year, PCs intercepted a Renault Megane near to junction 36 of the M4 motorway as it was being driven from Liverpool to South Wales by Carl Currie. This led to the seizure of 20kg of amphetamine, class B drugs with a potential street value of between £20,000 and £40,000.
This contraband was found inside a “bespoke hide”, which had been created by cutting a hole between the boot and rear passenger seats. The car was said to have been bound for the town of Maesteg and the home of Andrew Rogers, who later contacted Cahoon in an apparent effort to obtain “information about where his drugs are”.
A further 2kg of amphetamine and a small quantity of cannabis were subsequently discovered during a search of Currie’s home. Investigators ultimately identified another 12 occasions on which conspirators made journeys from Merseyside to South Wales, as well as two in the reverse direction.
Cahoon, who wore a light grey jumper over a white shirt and tie in the dock and sported short grey hair and a beard, would then leave the UK on May 10 2015, living in the Middle East until his extradition last summer. A third seizure of drugs then followed late on the night of May 13, when Peter McCaffrey’s Subaru estate car was stopped on Crosby Road South following a journey from South Wales.
Nine kilos of amphetamine were found inside a drawstring bag in the footwell of the vehicle. Nearly £25,000 in cash and close to half a kilogram of cannabis were also recovered from his home in Seaforth.
Challoner previously admitted possession of cocaine with intent to supply, while Parkes pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine. Bush admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and amphetamine, while Currie and McCaffery pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply amphetamine and Rogers was convicted of the same offence after a trial.
Mr McNally told the court that Cahoon had used nine different phone numbers during a six-month period around this time and said: “The prosecution case is that Paul Cahoon was a senior figure within these conspiracies. We say that Mr Cahoon had other people carrying out tasks on his instructions and that, by the way he acted, it was obvious that he was alive to the risk of detection and that he took steps to avoid it.
“The prosecution say that he was chopping and changing his telephone numbers in order to make it harder for any investigation to identify who he was in contact with, when he was in contact with them and who was in contact with him. That poses a question. Why would Mr Cahoon want to conceal his telephone contact? The prosecution’s case is, because it related to conspiracies to supply drugs.
“The defendant’s case on the other hand, as we understand it, is that, back in 2015, he was a figure of some local notoriety in certain circles because he was a well-known mixed martial arts competitor. The defendant says that these people he was in communication with were friends and associates of his.
“He says that the contact was nothing to do with the conspiracies, it was innocent contact with his friends and associates and did not relate to drugs supply. It might relate, for example, to them simply being friends of his or to mixed martial arts training or the recovery of debts, as his name and reputation would provide an incentive to get debts paid.”
But Mr Mr McNally said that Cahoon’s phone activity had come “at key times” and “relevant stages” in the conspiracy. He added: “The prosecution’s case is it is simply too much of a coincidence that there is the level and timing of contact by Mr Cahoon than it is anything other than an indication that he was involved in the conspiracies.”
Cahoon, who is defended by Kate Bex KC, denies conspiracy to supply cocaine and amphetamine. The trial, before Judge Robert Trevor Jones, continues.