Man jailed for smuggling drugs into jail using fake legal papers

A man who smuggled hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of drugs into prisons through forged solicitors letters has been jailed.

Dennis Obasi, 27, of no fixed abode, coated fake legal letters with the drug known as spice, which he would then send to inmates at 11 different jails.

He also conspired with his ex-girlfriend to operate a "sophisticated operation", the judge said.

He was sentenced at Swindon Crown Court to spend 11 years and 7 months in jail.

The judge, Jason Taylor KC, said the sentence "reflects the complexity and elaborate nature of the crime".

Obasi was sentenced earlier having been charged with smuggling spice into prisons, and being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine, and possession of criminal property.

It is estimated the total value of the spice smuggled into prisons was about £700,000.

Obasi and Emily MacArthur, 31, from Trowbridge, started the operation when he was an inmate at HMP Peterborough, and continued the deception following his release.

The court heard he used his knowledge of prisons to set up his "business" after being "blinded by easy money".

They set up a spice factory at a flat in Trowbridge, where more than £50,000 worth of spice powder, 100-plus pieces of paper soaked in the drug, fake legal stamps, piles of envelopes and further letters were found.

When the letters stopped working, and prison staff began disrupting that line of smuggling, Obasi and MacArthur started using friends and relatives to smuggle the drugs inside instead.

Osabi was also sentenced for operating a county lines route between Wiltshire and Oxfordshire, involving £5,000 of heroin and cocaine.

MacArthur has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply spice into prisons, as well as importation of class A drugs.

She is currently wanted by police after failing to appear at court.

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