Gang jailed for dealing drugs worth £840,000

Ian Maynard, 32, Kevin Anthony Campbell, 23, Mark Anthony Holmes, 22, and Paul Matthew Burke, 23, cheered and laughed as they were taken down to the cells.

All four admitted conspiring to supply Class A, B and C drugs – cocaine, amphetamine and cannabis – at Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

More than £300,000 worth of drugs, along with a steel press, a sawn-off shotgun and cartridges, kilos of bulking agents and drugs paraphernalia were seized in Middlesbrough and Guisborough.

The haul came from a drugs factory set up in Campbell’s Guisborough flat, three shipping containers and a car.

The seized drugs had an estimated street value of between £500,000 and £840,000.

Campbell also pleaded guilty to possession of an illegal firearm.

Detective Chief Inspector Rob Donaghy, the head of Cleveland Police’s organised and serious crime squad, said: “This was a really wellorganised and dangerous gang and I am confident that we have removed a significant amount of drugs off the streets of Teesside and across the North-East.

“They were obtaining drugs from Leeds, Manchester, London and Newcastle before cutting them down and selling them for massive profits.”

Sentencing the gang, Judge Peter Fox QC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, said: “Your commercial activity extended nationwide.

The conspiracy for the most part involved the unlawful dealing of amphetamine but in a less substantial part for cocaine and to a much lesser part cannabis.

“It is plain you are directly or very closely linked to importers.”

Maynard, of Lambton Street, Middlesbrough, who admitted being one of the major players in the gang, was jailed for nine years.

Campbell, of Wordsworth Road, Eston, was imprisoned for a total of eight years.

Holmes, of Ash Grove, South Bank, was given a six-year sentence, while Burke, of Clive Road, Eston, received four years.

■ Footage of officers recovering substantial amounts of drugs and the sawn-off shotgun will be on The Northern Echo website later today.