Jail for gang streets with
DEALERS GET ALMOST 20 YEARS AFTER BIG POLICE OPERATION
A GANG of drug dealers has been jailed for a total of almost 20 years for flooding Gateshead’s streets with cocaine and heroin.
Eight men were convicted of supplying Class A drugs after being arrested as part of Northumbria Police’s Operation Salvator raids.
Detectives had launched the investigation last year after the number of drugs deaths in Gateshead tripled between 2017 and 2018.
Plain-clothes officers spent hundreds of hours carrying out surveillance of suspects they believed to be supplying Class A drugs to vulnerable users.
The covert investigation also saw officers buying drugs off a number of dealers operating across the borough.
Those operations culminated in one of the biggest days of action ever carried out by Northumbria Police in April last year.
More than 60 suspects were arrested as the Operation Salvator detectives raided 37 addresses, seizing drugs, cash and weapons.
A handful of dealers have already been jailed for their roles in supplying heroin and cocaine across the borough but now the first organised gang has been convicted in court.
Earlier this year the eight men identified as being part of the gang admitted conspiracy to supply Class A drugs at Newcastle Crown Court.
And on Monday and Tuesday six of those dealers were back before the court where they were jailed for a total of 18 years and nine months.
Superintendent Brad Howe, of Northumbria Police, said: “This is the first conviction of an organised crime gang identified in the Operation Salvator investigation and I am delighted with the result.
“We launched this operation because of a very concerning increase in drugrelated deaths and ultimately our goal was to safeguard vulnerable people in Gateshead.
“Those involved had no concern for the welfare of those vulnerable drug users trapped in a cycle of addiction and were motivated only by financial greed.
“The fact they have now been jailed is testament to almost two years of hard work by the investigative team who put these men before the courts.”
Six men appeared at Newcastle Crown Court across Monday and Tuesday this week, where they were sentenced as follows:
l Michael Hewitt, 23, of Duncan Street, Gateshead, admitted conspiracy