Leader of drugs gang jailed for eight years

Ashley Wiltshire, 31, led a gang which used presses to stamp images on the 50,000 blocks – also using "F1" and "Playboy bunny" symbols.

Police seized drugs with a total street value of 500,000 at a youth club in Poplar, east London, in April and at a house in Loughton, Essex, in June.

Wiltshire, of Romford, Essex, along with Larry Hammersley, 44, of Poplar, Jay Putinas, 25, of Woodford Green, Essex, and Daniel Vann, 32, of Ongar, Essex, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Hammersley was jailed for six years, Putinas for four-and-a-half years and Vann for four years following the investigation by City of London police.

Judge Martin Stephens told the men: "You did it to make money quite unconcerned about the misery that the trade would bring to so many people."

He said the operation to prepare and distribute cocaine across the South-East on a "very substantial scale" was "sophisticated and professionally organised".

"Not only cocaine and its necessary cutting agents were recovered, but also mechanical equipment especially manufactured to process and prepare the drug, even with its own trademark for onward sale to users," he added.

Police said the money Wiltshire earned funded a lavish lifestyle of high-powered cars, designer goods and an apartment in a converted manor house.

Det Insp Dave Evans said: "Ashley Wiltshire was a ruthless man who used other people to handle his drugs, but lived a life of luxury off the illicit profits."