Convicted: Gang who flooded Stafford with £100k-worth of class A drugs

Everton Nugent, 48, of Mount Pleasant near Stafford, Londoners Darnell McCollins, 23, Orlando Grace, 23, and Nashwaan Ali, 24, of Hungerdown, and Gladstone Facey, 56, from Manchester, will be sentenced alongside a 61-year-old woman, also from Stafford, after she pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to allowing her home to be used to supply drugs.

In February 2017, Nugent was found to have a phone operating the drugs line 'sleepy', used to sell crack cocaine and heroin in Stafford.

He was found out after officers searched him and Facey in Moorfields. The line was later found to be linked to Grace and other gang members.

On July 11 that same year, a man was arrested on Newport Road, Stafford, after officers found heroin during a stop-and-search, before attending the man's address and finding £875 cash, cocaine and phones linking the homeowner to Nugent and supplying drugs.

Officers searched Nugent's Derrington home in the next day and seized phones, cannabis, crack cocaine, heroin and digital scales that were later linked to one of the two men already sentenced.

Three months later, he and McCollins were arrested after neighbourhood officers witnessed a drug deal on Westway in Stafford. The pair rode off on bikes and were found a short time later near the front door of the address previously linked to Nugent. Upon searching them, officers found cannabis and phones with texts linking to the 'sleepy' line.

In July 2018, another man was arrested after being seen on the stairwell of Pennycroft flats in Stafford, taking cash from known drug users. This led to Ali being arrested in London.

They were found guilty on June 4 of conspiring to supply heroin and crack cocaine following a six-week trial at Stafford Crown Court. They will be sentenced on September 2.

Two other men were sentenced to three years and nine months and two years and three months respectively in 2022 after admitting their part in the operation.

Sergeant Thomas Fotherby, from Stafford LPT, led the investigation. He said: "This is a welcome end to what was a large-scale conspiracy to supply vast quantities of crack cocaine and heroin across Stafford.

"Nugent was top of the chain, directing the supply and sale of harmful substances on the streets of our town. This result is the culmination of seven years’ hard work by local officers.

"The work of our police analyst in this case was described by the judge as ‘one of the most remarkable forensic feats’ they had ‘ever seen’. I am exceptionally proud of every police officer and member of staff involved in bringing this group to justice."