Drug kidnapping gang jailed

A kidnap gang which snatched a drug dealer from the streets of Wolverhampton and drove him to a beauty spot popular with Midland families has been jailed for a total of more than nine years.

Pedro Marcelo (pictured) Jordan McIntosh and David Achard took Lance Pease to the South Staffordshire Railway Walk, which runs between Wolverhampton and Wombourne, where he said he feared he would be killed.

Pease had told the trial in June that he had lost up to £20,000 of drugs.

He had been asked to sell them in Torquay by gang members in Heath Town.

After lying low, selling the drugs in Scotland to try to repay the debt, he returned to Wolverhampton. But he was spotted and the kidnappers arrived at a house in Ward Street, Bilston, late one night in March last year.

Pease jumped from a balcony and was chased by Marcelo and McIntosh on foot and Achard in a car.

He was caught by Priestfield tram stop where he claimed the pair attacked him before frogmarching him to the vehicle which Achard then drove away.

The 22-year-old broke free after the gang stopped and got out of the car at a picnic area by Radford Lane, Lower Penn, and walked to Bilston Street police station.

Pease claimed that 21-year-old McIntosh had pointed a gun at him and that Marcelo had a knife.

A jury found the three guilty of kidnap, but cleared them of possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

Judge Michael Dudley sentenced the kidnappers on the basis the kidnap was over a private debt of a few hundred pounds, and not as part of a gangland revenge attack for the lost drugs.

He said: "Kidnap can vary in gravity but always remains a serious offence, involving threats from violence and the deprivation of freedom of movement.

"Had you been convicted of the firearms offence, you would have been facing very long sentences. He (Pease) clearly was terrified."

Marcelo, 25, of no fixed address, and McIntosh, formerly of Hordern Road but who is currently serving a prison sentence for drugs offences, were each jailed for three years and nine months. Achard, 25, of Stow Heath Place, Stow Heath, was given a three years.