The conspiracy saw drugs worth more than £18m brought into Wales
The leaders of a crime gang who helped to traffic cocaine worth £18.5m into Wales from Liverpool have been jailed – bringing the total sentences passed in the conspiracy to almost 170 years .
Matthew Roberts ran the Welsh end of the operation, which used safe houses in Swansea , Clydach and Llanelli to supply the drug to dealers across South West Wales.
Swansea Crown Court heard the 31-year-old father-of-six from Llanelli derived “a great deal of satisfaction and pride” in “playing with the big boys” in the Merseyside end of the gang.
His second-in-command was Brian Bergamo from Clydach who ran the gang’s safe house on Vera Road in the village – from which police were later to recover a Samurai sword — and organised the onward supply of cocaine to a network of dealers. He also travelled to Liverpool as part of the operation and was present at key meetings.
The court heard fellow defendant Andrew Huw Price from Llanelli was a senior member of the gang who, “motivated by greed and kudos”, played a leading role in the enterprise and reaped the rewards, driving an £80,000 car and buying a quarter-of-a-million pound boat on a debit card.
Also in the dock was Michael Lamb from Swansea – Lamb was a regular visitor to the Clydach safehouse and was described as Bergamo’s “right hand man”, acting as a courier for the cocaine. When he was arrested in Newtown, Powys , en route from Merseyside to Swansea has was found to be in possession of almost half-a-kilo of extremely high purity cocaine.
Also part of the Welsh end of the conspiracy was Daniel Sheldon from Swansea – he had connections with the Liverpool crime gang and was responsible to taking drugs to Milford Haven for supply in Pembrokeshire.
Over the course of a year the 19-strong gang brought huge quantities of high purity cocaine into South West Wales for supply across Swansea, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire .
But Dyfed-Powys Police were on to them, tracking more than 30 drug runs between Swansea and Liverpool, placing a bugging device in their Clydach safe house and photographing senior members meeting in a Carmarthenshire cafe.
Eventually the police had enough intelligence to make a series of arrests and to charge the gang with conspiracy to supply.
At Swansea Crown Court Roberts, of Maes Cowny, Llanelli, and Price, of Pentre Nicklaus Village, Llanelli, were both sentenced to 12 years in prison for their part in the operation.
Bergamo, of Vera Road, Clydach, was jailed for 11 years; Lamb, of Prescelli Road, Penlan, Swansea, was jailed for nine years; and Sheldon of Aylesbury Road, Brynmill, Swansea, was jailed for eight years.
Also jailed was Liam Lasley, aged 29, of Gorsey Brow, Wigan, who was sentenced to six years and Ian Andrew Stewart, aged 29, of Stonegate Drive, Liverpool, who was sentenced to 10 years.
In total 19 members of the drugs gang have now been sentenced to a total of 169 years
see-http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/leaders-cocaine-trafficking-gang-locked-11962658
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