Multi-million pound Kent drugs gang jailed for cocaine dealing
Drugs gang members Daniel
Bridge, Lee Phillips and Daniel Dage
Members of a multi-million pound Kent drugs ring have been
jailed for a total of 28 years.
The nine-strong gang supplied huge amounts of cocaine across
Canterbury and the south coast.
Drugs with a street value of £6million were taken off the
streets - including cocaine with 94% purity - during a police
operation.
Sentencing eight of the defendants at Canterbury Crown Court
yesterday, Judge Nigel Van Der Bijl described the "sophisticated
operation" as a "business-like crime run in open daylight".
Lee Phillips, 30, of Prioress Road, Canterbury, was jailed for
four years; Daniel Bridge, 27, of Carlton Avenue, Broadstairs, was
jailed for three years; Daniel D’Age, 28, of St George’s Terrace,
Herne Bay, was jailed for eight years; Kieren Mitchell, 30, of
Roosevelt Avenue, Chatham, was jailed for five years; Justin
McColl, 31, of Camden Road, Broadstairs, was jailed for four years;
and Robert Curtis, 41, of Leighville Drive, Herne Bay, was jailed
for four years.
Drugs gang members Robert
Curtis Kieren Mitchell and Justin McColl
Angela McColl, 52, of Prospect Road, Broadstairs, was given a
two-year prison sentence - suspended for two years.
And Aaron Blake, 31, of Tenterden Drive, Canterbury, will be
sentenced on Friday, March 22.
All eight defendants had admitted conspiracy to supply
cocaine.
Rachel Deal, 30, of Leighville Drive, Herne Bay, was found
guilty by a jury of conspiracy to supply cocaine and given a
two-year prison sentence - suspended for two years.
The police operation began in September 2011 when Phillips was
stopped in his van by police.
Finding a bag of cocaine in the glove box and £1,220, officers
then searched his home and found swabbing equipment and weighing
scales.
On the same evening Bridge and Justin McColl were stopped in a
VW Golf near McColl’s home - where drugs paraphernalia and £5,000
was seized.
Huge amounts of cocaine
were uncovered during the police operation
Curtis was arrested when his Ford Mondeo was stopped on the
Thanet Way the next month and drugs were found stashed under a seat
in a plastic bag.
A search of his caravan in Sutton Vale, Deal, and Lamberhurst
farm in Dargate uncovered £16,500 and cocaine with an estimated
street value of £54,000.
Then in December 2011, police raided nine properties in Herne
Bay, Ashford, Chartham, Sturry and Broadstairs.
Drugs, mobile phones, counterfeit cash and weapons including a
crossbow were seized.
Bundles of cash were
discovered by detectives
DC Martin Lacey, from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime
Directorate, said: "This was a highly organised criminal network
and the people within the network were pocketing thousands by
selling to high end dealers across the east of the county.
"To connect the nine to the drug supply ring took many hours of
investigative work in which officers trawled through a huge amount
of mobile phone data and other intelligence which had been
painstakingly gathered.
"We have been successful in taking millions of pounds worth of
drugs off the streets and will continue to relentlessly pursue
those intent in profiting from the death and misery caused by
illegal drugs."
08/02/13
- Click here for more Canterbury news...
- Click here for more news from across the county...