23/01/2008 00:00:00
UK: Jail for 1million pound drugs gang
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WEST Mercia police smashed a cannabis factory with a potential annual
yield of almost £1 million a year from drug pushing, a judge heard.
The profits were laundered through top-of-the-range cars, jewellery and
luxury goods.
Officers who took part in Operation Gemini found that expenditure by
mastermind Kristoffer Bell included 18 cars worth £300,000 and household
renovation work topping £250,000.
He bought his girlfriend Hannah Brewster a BMW with personalised plates
and his father Martin Bell an Audi and a Porche Boxer, said Peter Cooke,
prosecuting at Worcester Crown Court.
Seized from the home of Reuben Brissett, another member of the gang, was
cash totalling £284,850 hidden in an attic.
He was also found to have 25 kilos of a cutting agent for cocaine, which
could have led to drug sales of £2 million.
Sentencing the drug gang to over 24 years' jail in total, Judge John
Cavell said he viewed the scam as "serious professional crime set up for
large profits."
Kristoffer Bell, aged 27, of Wordsworth Avenue, Redditch, was jailed for
seven years and will have to serve an extra 400 days of an unexpired
prison licence.
Sentences on the other defendants in the dock were: Brissett, 27, of
Hasfield Close, Gloucester, six and a half years; Martin Lilley, 36, of
Dolben Lane, Winyates, Redditch, 27 months; his brother Justin Lilley,
31, of Marlpool Drive, Redditch, 30 months; Jonathan McKeown, 47, of
Linthurst Road, Barnt Green, 27 months; Paul Mander, 45, of Bridley Moor
Road, Redditch, two years; Martin Bell, 55, of Spetchley Close,
Redditch, 18 months; Hannah Brewster, 29, of Wordsworth Avenue,
Redditch, eight months, suspended for 18 months, with 180 hours of
unpaid community work.
Leigh Bell, 29, of Spetchley Close, Redditch, was arrested during the
police inquiry for possession of a stun-gun, but was not involved in the
drug crimes.
He was given six months, suspended for 18 months with 100 hours work.
The gang pleaded guilty to a variety of charges including conspiring to
produce and supply cannabis, conspiring to possess criminal property and
obtaining services by deception.
Sacked postal worker Martin Bell was convicted by a jury of possessing
criminal property and facilitating its aquisition The judge said
Kristoffer Bell controlled "the sophisticated enterprise."
He had written a letter from jail boasting that when he was released
from an eight year term for grievous bodily harm he would "get back on top."
Within months of being freed in 2004 he began running the drug factory.
His barrister Neil Davis said he blamed himself for getting his father
Martin Bell and mother-of-one Brewster involved.
He "stood out like a sore thumb" to local police because of the flash
cars he drove.
Police surveillance came to an end on June 15, 2006, with a raid on the
cannabis factory set up in a five-bedroomed house in Linthurst Road,
Barnt Green, which was being rented for £3,000 a month.
McKeown lived there and was responsible for the day to day cultivation
of 587 plants, said Mr Cooke. They could produce up to four crops a year
with a top sale value of £900,000.
The Lilley brothers ran a brick cleaning firm before police inquiries
lost them customers and led to its closure.
Mr Cooke said Justin Lilley was Kristoffer Bell's 'lieutenant' who drove
him around.
Brewster 'turned a blind eye' to her boyfriend's activities and enjoyed
the fruits of his crimes.
Her barrister Brian Dean said her life had been poisoned by the
relationship and she had now concluded they lived in different worlds.
Peter Arnold, for Martin Bell, said he had lost his job and his mentally
disabled wife would have to go into hospital while he was in jail,
because he had been her carer for 20 years.
http://www.bromsgroveadvertiser.co.uk/display.var.1987604.0.jail_for_1m_drugs_gang.php
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=13193
Author:
Bromsgrove Advertiser via UKCIA
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