SEVEN members of an organised crime group have been jailed for a combined total of 75 years after being found guilty of supplying an estimated £49 million a year.
The seven members, aged between 25 and 41 years old, dealt class A drugs on a commercial scale and obtained potentially lethal firearms to enforce their operation.
Drugs with an estimated street value of £800,000 was seized by police after a series of arrests and searches starting in June 2020.
However, expert analysis of the gang’s communications indicated the seven men were believed to be supplying nearly 900 kilograms of class A and class B drugs per year, with an estimated street value of around £49 million.
The seven men were sentenced at Bournemouth Crown Court on Friday, November 25.
Jake Stephen Bastable, aged 36 and of St Anthony’s Road, Bournemouth, and Joe Tommy Bastable, aged 34 and of Mitchell Road, Poole, were both sentenced to 17 years in prison for offences of conspiracy to supply class A drugs and purchasing a firearm without authority.
Gavin Lee Richard Newman, aged 44 and of Ripon Road, Bournemouth, was sentenced to 12 years and four months in jail for offences of conspiracy to supply class A drugs, possessing a firearm without a certificate and possessing ammunition without a certificate.
Dennis Harry Hough, aged 35 and of Beaufort Road, Bournemouth, was jailed for five years and ten months, Zacharia Kaissi-Kavanagh, 25 and of Southbourne Overcliff Drive, Bournemouth, was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison and Aaron Shane Newman, aged 41 and of Florence Road, Bournemouth, was jailed for four years and ten months, all for conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Nicky Robert Charles Gent, aged 36 and of Berrans Avenue, Bournemouth, was sentenced to eight years in prison for offences of being concerned in an arrangement which facilitates the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by another and participation in the criminal activities of an organised crime group.
The group’s efforts to communicate through an encrypted messaging service were exposed and a large quantity of drugs were seized during a series of arrests, as well as the firearm they had obtained.
The investigation into the organised crime group began in March 2020 and exposed how the gang used an encryption method called Encrochat to run their operation, which was directed by the brothers Joe and Jake Bastable and involved them organising the buying and selling of large amounts of cocaine.
With the Bastable brothers directing the group, Gavin Newman was involved in organising drivers to collect and deliver the drugs and also collected the firearm on their behalf, before storing it at an address in Bournemouth.
He later instructed his brother Aaron Newman to collect drugs from the address and both Aaron Newman and Hough were involved in the transportation of cocaine in kilogram blocks, as well as the movement of money.
Gent was involved in the storing and counting of cash on behalf of the OCG while Kaissi-Kavanagh operated his own drug dealing line after buying in wholesale amounts from the Bastables.
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