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A ruthless gang of fake police officers kidnapped a man and Tasered his testicles before demanding a £500,000 cash and drugs ransom be delivered to a Birmingham address.

A former football agent whose brothers played for Manchester City was among five men jailed over the violent plot to snatch the victim in the belief he was a "major league drug dealer" worth "millions", a court heard.

They posed as police officers to "arrest" the man on suspicion of drug dealing after he left a barbers in Manchester on April 11 last year.

But he was then dragged into a van and a "realistic"-looking fake gun was put to his head before he was held for 12 hours at a nearby industrial unit.

In calls to the victim's family, the gang demanded £100,000 in cash and the rest in heroin and cocaine be dropped at an address in Birmingham, the Manchester Evening News reported .

A cement mixer was started to drown out any noise, including the man's screams. Manchester Crown Court heard the "heavy" of the group, Micah Walfall - known as Big Dave - used a blowtorch to singe the hairs on his arm and Tasered his testicles through his clothes.

(Image: Greater Manchester Police)

His ordeal only ended when some of the gang travelled to Birmingham to collect the ransom and police - alerted after the ransom calls were made - moved in having tracked the location from mobile phone data.

Walfell is still on the run but former soccer agent Michael Etuhu, 35; John Bishop, 31; Ben Ukaegbu, 38; Daniel Lowe, 27; and Nicky Barnes, 27; were all jailed.

Criminals from Manchester were behind the plan, the court heard, but they recruited an 'out of town' team from the Midlands so the victim would not recognise any of his kidnappers.

They had monitored his movements for weeks and struck after he left a barbers in Hale.

"This was without doubt a sophisticated, premeditated and carefully organised criminal enterprise," Judge Patrick Field QC said.

The court heard Walfall told the man after the snatch: "Right then, we know who you are and what you do.

"Get us everything we want and everything will be alright.

"We know where your wife is. Where your mum is. Where your dad is. We know where your house is.

"We can go and arrest them now if we wanted to.

"But we'll make it easy, you tell us where everything is and we'll let you go. Simple."

(Image: Greater Manchester Police)

"How much are you getting me?," Walfall asked him. The man initially said £10,000, but he was told it would have to be nearer to £100,000.

The man then had a gun pointed at his head after initially refusing to tell them the PIN for his phone.

The gang called his brother-in-law, who said he might be able to get 'a couple, maybe eight grand'.

Walfall took the phone and told him: "This phone call's ending. I’m going to give you a postcode and just come if you want to see your man here again."

(Image: Greater Manchester Police.)

In further phone calls, the brother-in-law told the kidnappers he was struggling to get hold of money.

He was told: "Listen, if you don’t, we know where his wife is, we know where he lives."

He alerted his sister, the victim's wife, and she called the police.

The gang told him the ransom should be delivered to an address in Birmingham. The demand was £500,000, with £100,000 in cash, and the rest in heroin and cocaine.

(Image: Greater Manchester Police)

They had also called a friend who had been with him at the barbers earlier. During that call the friend could hear screams of pain, while he was being Tasered.

Walfall also said: "If you don’t come or there’s any funny business, I’ll burn his face and scar him for life. His son will find out."

At one point, some of the gang left for Birmingham to pick up the ransom money, leaving Bishop and Ukaegbu with the gun to guard the victim.

(Image: Greater Manchester Police.)

Armed officers stormed the building at 10.30pm."You've saved my life," the man told officers after they found him handcuffed to the chair.

He suffered minor injuries, including a bump to his head and reddening to his arm.

Bishop, of Stanley Road, Chingford, London; and Ukaegbu, of no fixed address, were both arrested.

Bishop, who helped source the fake police uniforms, told officers the gang believed the man was a 'major-league drug dealer' and 'worth millions'.

(Image: Greater Manchester Police)

Barnes, of Byfield Road, Northampton, Etuhu, of Abbeycroft Close, Tyldesley, Manchester, and Lowe, of Greenwood Road, Northampton, were arrested later.

All five pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to blackmail.

Etuhu, a 'facilitator and organiser' of the plot was jailed for ten years and two months; Ukaegbu for 11 years and three months; Lowe for 10 years and six months; Barnes for 12 years; and Bishop for seven years.

The court heard the victim said he 'used to hang around with bad people, but doesn’t any more'.

(Image: Greater Manchester Police)

Prosecutors said the 'organised' and 'professional' plot was orchestrated by those people, knowing he may have ready access to large sums of cash.

The conspirators recruited an 'out of town' team to perform the hit, possibly fearing 'repercussions' if the victim knew who was responsible, the court heard.

Etuhu, a father-of-two and university graduate, became a football agent and later set up an agency with his two brothers who both played professional football for clubs including Manchester City, the court heard.

His barrister Genevieve Reed said Etuhu's behaviour 'could not be more out of character', and said his role was limited to 'administrative tasks'.

(Image: Greater Manchester Police)

Rachel Shenton, for Bishop, said the defendant had made 'fulsome admissions' to the police, which were of 'great assistance' to the investigation.

She said Bishop, who previously worked in waste management, was 'terrorised for months' in prison, receiving threats and being assaulted after other inmates learned of the contents of his police interview.

Keith Harrison, for Ukaegbu, conceded his client played a 'significant' role but said he was not the 'mastermind' of the plot and was recruited by others.

Chudi Grant said Lowe became involved because he got into debt while working as a self-employed courier.

(Image: Greater Manchester Police)

Barnes' barrister Kyriakos Argyropoulos said the defendant played the role of 'driver and a gofer', and wasn't involved in the planning or the abduction itself.

Det Insp Gareth Davies, of Greater Manchester Police’s Major Incident Team, said: “This was a terrifying attack on a man who was held against his will and senselessly tortured.

"This crime was carefully thought out and planned by this despicable group of offenders and their behaviour was ruthless and inhumane.

“The severity of these offences should not be underestimated and I would like to thank our GMP officers who have been working tirelessly as part of Operation Cervine to put these offenders behind bars where they can take the time they need to reflect on their actions.

“This sentence is very much deserved and I hope it will act as a warning that this type of criminal behaviour will absolutely not be tolerated on our streets.”