Once again, a drug gang has been foiled by the fact that trafficking and selling drugs remains very illegal. After monitoring a group of traffickers based in the north east of England for six months as part of an investigation dubbed "Operation Valiant", officials orchestrated an £8 million drugs bust, uncovering 19kg of cannabis, 2kg of heroin, 1kg of cocaine and over £100,000 in cash in one raid alone.
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The "large-scale and widespread" operation resulted in the arrests of eight gang members, who all entered guilty pleas to drugs offences. Two years on, seven are now behind bars for a collective total of 40 years. The longest sentence was handed to ringleader Richard French, 27, who got nine years and four months for conspiracy to supply narcotics.French, who ran sandwich and rare dog breeding businesses on the side before he was caught, headed up the Tyneside leg of the operation. He enlisted the help of some of his friends and fellow dog breeders to act as couriers and distributers, even using his mother's Gateshead home to stash some of the gang's haul and money, because what's family for if not to help you maintain a covert drug ring?Sentencing the group at Newcastle Crown Court, Judge Robert Adams said: "There were huge and high profits for some people involved, if not all involved. All drugs bring misery to their users and everyone else in the neighbourhoods where those users live as they find means to fund their habit, often by means of thefts, robberies etcetera."More on VICE:We Went Drug Testing at Secret Garden Party to See What Weird Shit Ends Up in Your DrugsWhat Happens if You're Caught Getting Drugs in the Mail?LSD, Coke and Edibles: How Various Drugs Affect You at Work