'Low-life' drugs gang used teenagers as modern slaves
Police handoutMembers of a drugs gang which used teenagers as slaves have been jailed after bringing £300,000 of drugs to Devon.
The Manc Joey gang, from Liverpool, sent dealers on 21 trips with heroin and cocaine, Exeter Crown Court heard.
They recruited teenagers to deliver, with two 17-year-olds categorised as modern slaves by the National Crime Agency, the court was told.
Five men have been jailed for between two-and-a-half and four years.
Police tracked gang
Dealers brought up to 1,500 ready-packed street deals per trip and stayed for a week at a time at hotels, Airbnb apartments, or the homes of addicts, the court heard.
The operation, set up in February, carried on at the same level throughout the first England coronavirus lockdown, making it easier for police to track their activity in empty streets, the court was told.
Police arrested members of the group selling drugs openly in an Exeter park three days after the start of lockdown in March.
Others were intercepted in Plymouth and on the M5 in Devon in May and July with large consignments of drugs.
PoThree of the gang admitted two counts of conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine. They were:
- Jordan Kaye, 23, of Gilroy Road, Wirral - jailed for three years, four months
- Joseph Westbury, 22, of Benedict Close, Wirral - jailed for two-and-a-half years
- Ian Cramp, 46, of Kirkfield Grove, Birkenhead, Merseyside - jailed for two-and-a-half years
Judge Timothy Rose said the conspiracy was "to exploit the misery of others and make money" in what he called "low-life behaviour".
Alan Hughes, 21, and John Kirk, aged 33, both from Merseyside, admitted the same conspiracy at an earlier hearing.
Hughes was jailed for four years-and-a-month, and Kirk for three years.