JAILED: Black Country drugs gang transported £170k cash linked to high purity cocaine

The leading players in the scheme, 41-year-old David Morris from Essington and 42-year-old Simeon Greene from Lower Gornal, were both jailed for 12 years for their roles in the money laundering scheme.

Sentencing them at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday, Judge Michael Chambers QC told the pair that they both played "significant" roles in the crime.

And he said he did not accept their explanations that they were only due to collect a modest reward for arranging to transport the cash for others after phone records linked them.

The gang were arrested after after a plastic bag containing £88,490 was seized from a a car driven by 33-year-old co-accomplice James Callister, of Wolverhampton. Fingerprints belonging to Callister and Morris were found on the bag.

The court that another plastic bag containing a further £80,030 was seized from another car which linked accomplices Lee Bradburn and Glen Pardoe to the group.

Judge Chambers said: "This was in my judgement a highly sophisticated and organised conspiracy to wholesale and supply cocaine. The purity was relatively high at just under 80 per cent.

"This shows you were close to the organisers for it."

The activity came to light in August 2020 after two other men, Samuel Leggett and William Kelly, were arrested relating to the seizure of a 1kg block of cocaine destined for the streets of Cheltenham and Kidderminster. They were subsequently jailed in a separate case.

The court heard that in the latest case the deals involved "clandestine collection points" and involved various communications linking the defendants to each other.

Judge Chambers said: "You sourced the cocaine which was supplied on to leading wholesalers."

"You clearly acted as a team. Therefore in my judgement there is no distinction in culpability of both Greene and Morris."

He said that although the gang were not being sentenced for drug dealing offences, the activity formed an integral part of the money laundering scheme.

He said the group at first used Encro Chat, which he described as a network "loved by criminals". When they suspected they were being monitored they switched to other media to communicate, sometimes in code.

Officers discovered that a total of 23kg of drugs was transported on eight occasions between March and September 2020.

The remaining 22kg has never been recovered and is believed to have hit the region's streets.

The court was told that all five regretted taking part in the conspiracy.

Mitigating barrister for Greene and Pardoe, Miss Samantha Powis said: "The money has come from serious crime."

All five admitted their roles at a previous hearing. Morris, of Sneyd Lane, Essington, near New Invention, admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and money laundering and was jailed for 12 years and eight months. Greene, of The Straits, Lower Gornal, admitted money laundering and was jailed for 12 years.

Bradburn, Callister and Pardoe were each jailed for 10 months for criminal property crimes.

Bradburn, 40, of Leasowes Drive, Merry Hill, Wolverhampton, admitted concealing criminal property relating to the transporting of the £80,030.

Callister, of Deans Road, Deansfield, Wolverhampton, and Pardoe, 46, of Sheldon, Birmingham, both admitted possessing criminal property.

The court heard that West Midlands Police had used mobile phone cell siting technology and surveillance techniques to put an end to the operation.