Cocaine gang locked up for 15 years
Drugs and guns found in raid on home
ADRUGS gang have been jailed for 15 years after police found a stash of class A drugs and two loaded shotguns at a house.
Officers raided a home on Burnley Road in Bacup being used by two dealers and found crack cocaine with 89 per cent purity in a safe hidden under bedroom floorboards last July.
The pair were ‘ released under investigation’, and when police raided the home again in October they found more class A drugs along with a Bernardelli single barrel shotgun and a .410 bore shotgun hidden in two bags.
Two knives, two balaclavas and gloves were also recovered along with £ 1,600 worth of heroin and £ 120 in crack cocaine. Jan Loewe, Ryan Florence and Janine Boyarin have been jailed for drugs offences.
The judge said he was ‘astonished’ police did not charge Loewe and Florence after the initial house raid.
ADRUGS gang have been jailed for 15 years after police found a stash of class A drugs and two loaded shotguns at a house.
Officers raided a property on Burnley Road in Bacup on June 23 last year used by Jan Loewe and Ryan Florence and found crack cocaine with 89 per cent purity in a safe hidden under a bedroom floorboards.
Ammonia bottles, masks, snap bags, digital scales, notebooks, cash and mobile phones containing drug- related messages were also seized.
Loewe told officers that some of the drugs were for his own personal use and they were using the ammonia to turn cocaine into crack.
Both men were ‘ released under investigation’ and police raided the same house again on October 13.
Loewe and a woman Janine Boyrain were arrested inside and officers found more class A drugs along with a Bernardelli single barrel shotgun and a .410 bore shotgun hidden in two bags.
Two knives, two balaclavas and gloves were also recovered along with £ 1,600 worth of heroin and £120 in crack cocaine.
Judge Simon Medland QC said it was ‘ utterly inexplicable’ why the police did not arrest and charge Loewe and Florence after the first raid.
Loewe, 51, of Burnley Road, Bacup, pleaded guilty to possessing class A drugs with intent to supply, possessing a single barrel shotgun, possessing an altered firearm without a certificate and possessing heroin and crack cocaine.
The court heard how Loewe had previously been jailed for a total of 11 years for drugs and weapons offences.
Describing Loewe as a ‘ long-standing criminal’ with links to the ‘criminal underworld and serious crime for many years’, Judge Medland jailed him for 10 years.
Florence, 27, of Holly- hedge Road, Manchester, pleaded guilty to possessing class A drugs with intent to supply and was jailed for three years.
Boyarin, 27, of Allerton Drive, Burnley, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of class A drugs and was jailed for two years.
The court heard how Boyarin ‘assisted’ Loewe by weighing and bagging the drugs and sending text messages.
Judge Medland said Boyarin was the ‘ best example of the way class A drugs destroy people’s lives and corrode society’.
Florence also helped cut and wrap the drugs and ‘on occasions’ would go out to supply them.