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Drug gang jailed for £1.2m cannabis smuggling plot
Total of 27 years for players in conspiracy Olwen Dudgeon JAIL sentences totalling more than 27 years were imposed yesterday on a drug-smuggling ring who planned to illegally import £1.2m of cannabis into Britain in a lorry.
Six men from South Yorkshire, Nottingham, Cheshire and Lincolnshire, were locked up after a judge at Leeds Crown Court heard police were monitoring their activities as they plotted the "large-scale importation and distribution of illegal drugs."
Their arrests followed the seizure of the cannabis by Spanish officials after the lorry was stopped in Alicante in February last year.
Jailing them Judge Stephen Ashurst said: "The sheer volume of cannabis and street value of 1.2m makes it absolutely clear to me this was a very serious criminal enterprise, the success of which depended on all the main players performing a key role.
"Those who finance and organise a scam such as this must expect the heaviest sentence, for they would otherwise have derived the greatest benefit had police not acted as they did to keep this 400 kilogrammes off the streets of the north and North Midlands."
The court heard the main organisers and financiers were Ian Brennan, responsible for running the Doncaster end of the operation, and Graham McDonald from Nottingham, who provided the link to the suppliers in Spain.
Guy Kearl QC, prosecuting, told the court Brennan was a criminal entrepreneur who was also behind an earlier drugs seizure involving 70,000 of amphetamines.
His right-hand man was Terry Cooley, who invested some of his own money in the cannabis-smuggling enterprise, and Brennan also used another man, Jonathan Stray, as a runner to courier money for him.
Financial adviser Nigel Rush was responsible for introducing Brennan to transport haulier Cameron Moir, who arranged for one of his drivers to pick up a load in Spain which included the cannabis resin from North Africa. The driver was jailed in Spain for four years.
When arrests were made in England in February last year, 13,000 in cash was seized from Brennan's home, plus a gold Rolex watch bought for 18,000 dollars in the Bahamas, while recovered from his driveway was a Range Rover and a Mercedes, while 49,000 in cash was seized at McDonald's home.
Brennan, 36, of Maple Avenue, Crowle, near Scunthorpe, who admitted conspiracy to import cannabis resin, conspiracy to supply cannabis resin and conspiracy to supply amphetamine sulphate was jailed for a total of seven-and-a-half years.
Judge Ashurst said he was satisfied Brennan was "a major regional drug dealer" at the hub of the enterprise, and barred him from travelling abroad for five years after his release.
McDonald, 42, of Top Valley, Nottingham, who admitted conspiracy to import cannabis resin, was jailed for five-and-a-half years.
Terry Cooley, 34, of Evelyn Avenue, Intake, Doncaster, who admitted conspiracy was jailed for four years nine months and banned from travelling from the UK for five years after his release.
Rush, 36, of The Barristers, Oaklands, Bessacarr, Doncaster, who admitted being concerned in the illegal importation of cannabis was jailed for four years.
Moir, 33, of Winsford Road, Wetherhall, Chester, who admitted the conspiracy was sent to prison for three and half years and Stray, 26 of Exeter Road, Doncaster, who also admitted his guilt was jailed for two-and-a-half years.
Cooley's brother, Andrew, 38, of Laburnham Drive, Armthorpe, Doncaster, who admitted possession of amphetamine with intent to supply was given 240 hours community punishment. He was stopped by police in a car with 35,000 of amphetamine he was transporting for Brennan. A similar amount was also seized at another man's house.
After the case, Acting Superintendent Gerry Smyth of the National Crime Squad said: "None of the defendants had any visible means of income to substantiate their extravagant lifestyles yet Rush spent over 100,000 in 18 months at a jewellers in Leeds, and Brennan had extensive holidays abroad and sold a previous home for 600,000."
Financial proceedings will be heard later in the year.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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