An organised crime network who distributed cocaine, heroin and cannabis across Greater Manchester and the West Midlands has been jailed for more than 50 years.
The court heard how throughout the course of the investigation, police seized over five kilograms of cocaine and heroin and almost £250,000 in cash.
The network unravelled on the 6th September this year after key players were identified. Almost £88,000 was seized from Tyrone Carter-Spencer after he was stopped at junction 14 on the M6 by the Central Motorway Policing Group following extensive enquiries carried out by GMP detectives.
Just over a month later, police searched an address on Heathbank Road in Blackley where they recovered over four kilograms of cocaine.
Later that day, Greg Pattinson was stopped on City Road in Hulme as he travelled from the West Midlands into Manchester. More than £52,500 in cash was seized from him.
On the 25 October following covert surveillance, officers stopped Simone Jackson on Athol Street in Whalley Range where she was found with 1.2 kilograms of heroin that she tried to dispose of in a bin after claiming she thought it was food.
Examination of Taron Lee’s mobile phone identified that the group made over £750,000 in just over a one month period.
Detective Inspector Tony Norman, of GMP’s Serious and Organised Crime Group, said: “This was a meticulous operation that remains ongoing but we have been able to bring 14 people to justice over the last few days.
“I would like to thank our partners and colleagues in the West Midlands who fully supported our investigation, enabling us to achieve this result. Hopefully this goes some way to illustrating how serious we are in our efforts to remove drugs from our streets.
“I hope that today’s sentence serves as a message that we will continue to target organised crime networks and are committed to finding those who seek to infiltrate our communities with drugs. These people profit from the misery of others and their illicit activities must be stopped.”
