Last member of £66m drugs gang is sent down
THE final member of a criminal network which flooded the region with cocaine and heroin has been jailed after GMP’s biggest ever drugs seizure.
Francis (Frank) Eaton, 48, was a key player in a sophisticated continental trafficking operation which saw vast amounts of class A drugs delivered from Belgium to the UK via Holland.
He was the eighth man to be jailed in connection with the conspiracy, which was smashed by GMP’s Serious Organised Crime Group after months of surveillance.
Their downfall came after a vast stash of heroin and cocaine worth £66.5m was found hidden in a lorry carrying a tractor at King George Docks in Hull last May.
Last month seven of the men were jailed at Preston Crown Court for more than 103 years in total after being convicted of drug conspiracy charges.
Now Eaton, of Bag Lane, Ashbourne, Derbyshire, has been sentenced at Burnley Crown Court to 17 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to import cocaine and heroin.
He had been extradited from Belgium to where he had fled after the haul was intercepted.
Nearly 200 vacuum-wrapped bags of drugs were concealed in six cavities drilled out of a steel beam which carried the flat-back trailer.
Detective Inspector Tony Norman, of GMP’s Serious Organised Crime Group, said: “These men operated one of the largest international drug importation networks that GMP has ever investigated.
“Their offending didn’t just have a local impact on Greater Manchester; it reached across the UK and will no doubt have had a ripple effect in mainland Europe where their money was lining the pockets of crime bosses.
“Our work to tackle local criminality is very important and alongside that we will continue to target those who operate at the very top so that we can shatter these organised crime networks and strangle the supply at a local level.”