Gang jailed as police foil huge drugs plot

Surveillance officers looked on as the plotters amassed equipment for their multi-million-pound operation in Coventry, Sheffield, Kent and Amsterdam.

They bought a specialist pill-making machine, sunk safes into the ground and even bought a cement mixer to add bulking agents to maximise their profits.

Eight men were jailed yesterday at Birmingham Crown Court after pleading guilty to a raft of drugs offences, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) said.

The gang was led by Anthony Spencer, 61, of Keresley, Coventry, a dedicated criminal who has spent time in prison for drugs, firearms, fraud and theft.

He was jailed for five years three months after admitting conspiracy to supply and import amphetamine and cannabis.

Spencer was caught after undercover police tailed him for months as he met associates to found his new drugs empire. The men were linked to a farm and a flat in Amsterdam being used as warehouses and preparation factories.

When Dutch police raided the farm they seized 100kg of amphetamine and 50kg of cannabis.

Investigators turned their attention to Britain as the remaining gang members prepared to ramp up their activities.

In a bizarre twist, investigators found Spencer's son wrote a comic book about drug trafficking, Smuggling Vacation, using his father as a "crime consultant".

Copies were found at nearly every address searched by police and in a box of amphetamines delivered to an address in Sheffield.

Three of the men sentenced today were: Christopher Pollock, 37, of Exhall, Coventry, jailed for three years, three months; former prison governor Jogendranath Rajcoomar, 57, of Exhall, Coventry, jailed for three years nine months and his son Sunil Rajcoomar, 25, of no fixed abode, jailed for two years.

Others jailed were Michael McGlinchey, 58, of Coventry, jailed for three years two months; John Mitchell, 40, of Greenhithe, Kent, jailed for four years three months; Mark Adderley, 52, of Harbourne, Birmingham, jailed for three years nine months and Stephen Lismore, 41, of Grantham, Lincolnshire, jailed for three years two months.