Drugs gang behind bars 
after lengthy investigation

Over the past 18 months, officers from the South Yorkshire Police serious and organised crime unit have been investigating an organised crime group in Barnsley.

Operation Metric found men involved in the large-scale supply of class A and B drugs in South Yorkshire and surrounding areas.

Officers raided premises in Barnsley, Lincolnshire, and Nottinghamshire in January and found £400,000 of controlled drugs together with a large amount of cash.

Yesterday, at Sheffield Crown Court, Paul Alan Lowe, 41, of Arundel Gardens, Royston, Barnsley, received a 14-year sentence for conspiracy to supply class A and B drugs, while Gregg Gosling, 44, of Ingham Road, Coningsby, Lincolnshire, was jailed for 16 years for conspiracy to supply class B drugs and possession with intent to supply class A and class B.

Rodney Stanford, 29, of Coldharbour Lane, Boston, was jailed for four years for possession with intent to supply class A and class A drugs, while Roy Walker, 49, of White Rose Avenue, Mansfield, received a 12-year sentence for conspiracy to supply class B drugs and possession of drugs.

Andrew Calder, 44, of Irwin Drive, Nottingham was jailed for four years and six months for conspiracy to supply class B drugs.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Wilkie from South Yorkshire Police specialist crime operations, said: “These sentences are the culmination of a complex and protracted investigation of an organised crime group that systematically distributed, around the north of England and within South Yorkshire, large quantities of class A and B controlled drugs.

“This investigation demonstrates that South Yorkshire Police will do whatever it takes to combat the threat posed by organised crime groups and hunt down those individuals who engage in this type of criminality and bring them to justice.”