Gang handed 200 years in jail after drug empire is smashed
THREE CRIME GROUPS STRETCHED ACROSS THREE COUNTIES
THE huge operation to smash a drugs gang, from the kingpin all the way down to the runners and a self-proclaimed “chemist”, started in a Derby store room, it has been revealed.
Twenty-two defendants have now been jailed for a total of more than 200 years in the culmination of an extensive police operation which saw the fall of three crime groups across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire.
Det Insp Harry Rai, who was the senior investigating officer, said: “It’s one of those investigations where we’ve actually taken out the whole strand from top to bottom. We took out the kingpin all the way down to the bottom.”
POLICE took down a drugs gang from top to bottom – from the kingpin all the way down to the runners and a self-proclaimed “chemist” - in an extensive operation which saw the fall of three crime groups across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire.
Twenty-two defendants have now been jailed for a total of more than 200 years.
Police say the criminals were responsible for ploughing more than £20 million worth of high purity illegal drugs into the country over the course of a year. The drugs could have made up to £60 million if sold on the street.
Det Insp Harry Rai, who was the senior investigating officer, said it all started at a Derby storage depot and unravelled from there.
He said: “We have got three crime groups effectively out of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire, who seem to be the main features of it, and, as the investigation has progressed, these dots seem to have been joined up.”
Among them was David Moth, 47, formerly of Hogan Gardens in Top Valley, Nottingham, who had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A and class B drugs. He was jailed for 14 years.
Moth was an associate of David Gunn.
David Gunn, 55, and formerly of Gainsford Crescent, Bestwood, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class B drugs. He was jailed for three years and three months and is now understood to have served his sentence, imposed during sentencing of his co-accused at the end of 2019 into 2020.
Det Insp Rai said: “It’s one of those investigations where we’ve actually taken out the whole strand from top to bottom. We’ve taken out the importation side all the way down to the bottom, street dealing, that brings misery to our communities. We took out the kingpin all the way down to the bottom.”
He said the gang had “a profitable enterprise going, bringing a tonne of dangerous drugs into the UK”.
“They showed no care for the incredible damage this sort of criminality causes, rather used it to line their own pockets – on the face of it, benefitting by tens of millions of pounds – and bolster their reputation.
“At the top of the tree was Ardeep Takhar, who kept his hands relatively clean by controlling the whole illicit operation from afar in Leicester. He arranged for Lawinder Bahia, Jasbir Sangha and Daljit Pamma to do most of the leg work, receiving the secret shipments as they were brought into the country and then transporting it between counties, over hundreds of miles.
“Sukjinder Sandhu and David Moth commanded their own gangs and, in partnership with Adam Dooley and Marc Unsted, went on to flood countless communities with millions of pounds’ worth of deadly drugs.”