A COCAINE-ADDICTED detective who stole drugs with a retail value of almost £400,000 from police stores and supplied them to criminals has been jailed for 19 years. Andrew Talbot, 54, formerly a Greater Manchester Police (GMP) detective constable, conspired with convicted drug dealer Keith Bretherton, 50, to sell the stolen drugs, Liverpool Crown Court heard. GMP's anti-corruption investigation into Talbot, from Leigh, began in February 2020 after he dropped a small bag of cocaine outside his daughter’s primary school.
Talbot was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on October 18 (Image: Newsquest) James Lake, prosecuting, said: “Staff members were made aware that a snap bag containing white powder had been found on the footpath. When the school looked at close circuit television they saw that it was Andrew Talbot who had dropped the snap bag. “Unsurprisingly, given they knew he was a police officer, they contacted the police.
” When Talbot was arrested after arriving for duty at work on February 17 2020, a total of 26.8g of high purity cocaine was found in his coat pocket, as well as smaller amounts which were lower purity, the court heard. Snap bags and a piece of paper with exhibit references for Operation Cosmetic, which investigated the nationwide supply of cocaine, were found in his car and three bullets were found at his home in Leigh.
When officers checked drugs which had been seized as part of Operation Cosmetic and another investigation they found just under 4.