A man from Rochdale has been handed a jail sentence after thousands of pounds worth of drugs, guns, and more than 800 parrots were discovered on his land.
Back on 27 July 2023, officers from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were called out to the address of The Pen, on Dyehouse Lane in Rochdale – which was a large plot of land with several containers, buildings, and outbuildings, and the family home of 36-year-old Zak Dearden – and proceeded to conduct searches.
This operation took a month, and more than 50 police officers were used to successfully complete the search of the land and all buildings.
Dearden was originally arrested, charged, and remanded for a drugs offence, but after officers received some intelligence that he had guns at his home address, and this is when searches began – with Operation Greyhound commencing in July 2023.
The Pen site on Dyehouse Lane in Rochdale, where Zak Dearden lived / Credit: GMP
Over the next four weeks, the search of the buildings resulted in drugs, firearms, and chemicals which were believed to be used in the manufacture and production of drugs, being seized from the property.
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Five firearms with ammunition, and drugs including 10kg of amphetamines with a street value of £100,000, 99g of cannabis oil with a street value of £12,884, £57,000 worth of cannabis and £4,685 worth of cocaine, were all recovered from the property site in total.
As Dearden also ran a pet shop with his father selling exotic birds, officers found several hundred different animals including dogs, peacocks, parrots, mink, ferrets, ducks, Koi Carp, and a bull at the address, and at one count, there were even more than 800 parrots in separate outbuildings.
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#JAILED | A man has been jailed for 10 years after officers discovered drugs, guns, ammunition and exotic birds on land in Rochdale.
Zak Dearden pleaded guilty to 13 counts including possession of guns, ammunition and drug supply.
All the animals, including the 800 parrots, were left in the care of Dearden’s father after searches.
Dearden pleaded guilty to 13 counts, including but not limited to, the possession of guns, ammunition, possession of drugs, being concerned in drug supply, and drug manufacture.
The 36-year-old appeared at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court last week, and after pleading guilty, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Featured Image – GMP
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Legendary Salford Poet Dr John Cooper Clarke announces MASSIVE gig at Co-op Live next year
Thomas Melia
Poet and Greater Mancunian legend Dr John Cooper Clarke is playing a landmark gig at Manchester’s newest entertainment venue next year.
Throughout his career, Clarke has played many venues including theatres and festivals. However, this Manchester city centre gig is set to be his first arena show and first of its kind as he will become the first poet ever to headline an arena.
The literary great has many achievements under his belt including performing alongside some of the UK’s biggest punk bands like Joy Division, New Order and The Buzzcocks just to name a few.
Now, in his 75th year on earth, Clarke is still breaking records and spreading his poetry to the world, this time performing to an audience of literary lovers at Co-op Live.Clarke has done gigs in a variety of places, last year, he even put on a show underground in Peak cavern.
He will be performing material from his latest body of work ‘WHAT’ with a special guest joining him at every venue he stops off at.
Linkton Kewesi Johnson has been chosen to set the stage in Manchester. He’s also a notable figure in the written world being the only black poet to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series.
The tour announcement follows the release of John Cooper Clarke’s latest poem ‘Proper Sound’ a partnership between Co-op and the poet, with lines like ‘a town is not a proper town without the old Co-op around’.
He is a homegrown talent being born and raised in Salford with his work really dominating the punk-air of the 70’s. In 2023 he was granted freedom of his own city after all his great writing efforts.
In 2013, Clarke saw his work elevated to further heights as Sheffield rock band Arctic Monkey’s turned his poem into song with the release of their cult classic single, ‘I Wanna Be Yours’.
Since its release 11 years ago, the song has racked up over one billion Spotify streams and has significantly boosted the profile of both Alex Turner’s band and the Salford poet.
That same year, Dr John Cooper Clarke received an honorary doctorate from his hometown education institute as Salford University awarded the literary genius for his services to arts.
The poet has had many a profile and interview over the years, in recent chats, he has been persistent about his digital detox.
Clarke is set on not owning a mobile phone or various electronic devices, and why would he? After all, this Doctor is the epitome of rock ‘n’ roll.
Dr John Cooper Clarke and his special guest Linkton Kewesi Johnson are stopping off in our beautiful city on Saturday 29 March 2025.
Tickets for Dr John Cooper Clarke and his poetry guests go live to Co-op members on 16 October at 10am. General on-sale is happening on 18 October at 10am HERE.
Major changes have been made to what Greater Manchester households can recycle
Emily Sergeant
Major changes have been made to what households across Greater Manchester can now stick into their recycling bins.
In case you weren’t aware, this week is National Recycling Week, which is a national effort focused on rescuing items that can be recycled, and in a bid to properly mark the occasion, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has announced that residents across the region will now be able to recycle a wider range of plastic items in their household mixed recycling bin.
This is all thanks to upgrades in Greater Manchester’s recycling facilities, and to the recent contract extension with SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK.
From this week, plastic pots and tubs used for things like yoghurt, soup, cosmetics, butter, and laundry powder, plastic trays containing raw and cooked meat, and plastic fruit and veg punnets, can now all be put in the mixed recycling bin.
These can now all join items like plastic bottles, glass jars, food tins and drinks cans, aerosols, and foil for the first time.
Despite these recent facilities upgrades, plastic films like crisp packets, pet food pouches, and carrier bags, still cannot be recycled in our region.
For now, you can just can throw plastic films into your household bin, where they’ll be burned to generate electricity for the region, however, GMCA has assured residents that it is planning to collect these types of plastic for recycling “in the future”.
“These upgrades will keep up our momentum on recycling,” explained Cllr Tom Ross, who is the Portfolio Lead for Waste and Recycling at GMCA.
Emily Sergeant -
14th October 2024 
