David "Noddy" Rice, of St Vincent Street, South Shields, was shot nine times by two masked men on the seafront at Marsden.
A jury at Newcastle Crown Court heard how he had been lured to the meeting by Steven Bevens, 39, who worked for gunman Allan Foster, a drug dealer originally from South Tyneside, who had moved abroad.
Bevens, of Wheatsheaf Court, Sunderland, denied Mr Rice's murder but was convicted in April and sentenced to life with a minimum of 26 years.
Derek Stephen Blackburn, 51, from Humberside, pleaded guilty to assisting an offender after admitting driving Bevens and another man away in a Ford Transit following the murder. He was sentenced to four years.
Police are trying to trace Foster, 30, who sometimes goes under the name Sean Wilkinson. He is known to have associates in the Kent area. He has also spent time in Majorca, the Canaries, Spain and Thailand.