Blaenau Gwent,South Wales - Drug dealers jailed after high purity cocaine worth more than £1 million seized from traveller site

Martyn Pagett, aged 31, from Blaina, South Wales and Neil Strange, aged 61, formerly of Blaina have been jailed for 16 years

• 4 MAR 2016
• BY CATHY OWEN

Martyn Pagett and Neil Strange were sentenced to a total of 16 years in prison

Two members of an organised crime group have been jailed after police found 8kg of cocaine and £125,000 in cash at a South Wales travellers site.

Martyn Pagett, 31, from Blaina , and Neil Strange, 61, formerly of Blaina but now living in Paignton, Devon, have been jailed for 16 years for money laundering and conspiring to supply cocaine.

National Crime Agency investigators found 8kg of high purity cocaine at the Cwm Crachen travellers site in Nantyglo, where Pagett was employed as the site warden.

Officers seized approximately £125,000 in cash from the scene.

The £125,000 in cash that was seized

The cash was taken from the scene.

More cash seized

The drugs were found in a Portacabin at the site which only Pagett had access to.

Another £9,000 was recovered at an address linked to Strange in Theale, near Reading.

The cocaine that was seized by officers

Earlier that day, Pagett had travelled down to Abergavenny, where an exchange took place between him and Anthony Moran, aged 33, from Glasgow.

Moran caught a train back to Scotland, but was stopped by British Transport Police in Crewe as a result of NCA intelligence.

He was found to be in possession of one kilo of cocaine and has since been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Pagett was also supplying, amongst others, Ashley Burgham, 28, the head of another OCG based in Gwent. Burgham and ten members of his group were sentenced to 54 years last December.

Ashley Burgham

Jailed in December: Organised drugs gang which plotted to supply millions of pounds of class A drugs jailed

Both Pagett and Strange pleaded guilty and were sentenced today at Cardiff Crown Court to eight and eight and a half years respectively.

The pair were arrested in Bristol on August 19, 2014, by officers from the Wales branch of the National Crime Agency.

A surveillance image released by the National Crime Agency

Colin Williams, NCA Wales branch commander, said: “These men were heavily involved in money laundering and supplying large quantities of class A drugs to other crime groups, who in turn sold the drugs on to make large profits, fund their criminal lifestyle, and invest in further criminal activity.

“By putting both Pagett and Strange behind bars, we have broken a link in the chain between suppliers and street-level dealers, who cause misery and suffering within the communities of South Wales.”

see-http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/drug-dealers-jailed-after-high-10990627