MEMBERS of two drugs gangs who flooded North Wales with cocaine and heroin worth about £2.7 million have been jailed for nearly 90 years.

The network of drug dealing stretched across the North Wales coast with vast quantities of the Class A narcotics moved from Liverpool and Manchester by a gang of couriers and drivers and distributed by a chain of command.

They also imported the adulterant benzocaine to water down the purity of the drugs which were as high as 90 per cent in some cases.

Drug lords Aled Gray and Matthew Jones ran the operations for a period of more than two years before North Wales Police assisted by neighbouring forces made vital seizures as part of Operation Zeus.

The net closed in on 27 men who have fallen for sentence at Mold Crown Court over three days with ringleader Gray due to be sentenced in the New Year.

Gray’s Holyhead pubs the Dublin Packet and the Boston Arms were the base for the western arm of the operations, while Jones ran the Llandudno end of the crime empire.

The court was told all the men were part of a sophisticated criminal organisation that was responsible for the largescale selling of mainly cocaine as well as heroin and cannabis. The gangs used their own surveillance technology to try to evade detection and weapons were recovered when police made raids.

“Their operations allowed multi-million pounds of cocaine to be traded down to the streets and towns of North Wales,” said barrister Andrew Jones, prosecuting.

“Police discovered a widespread and far-reaching conspiracy to supply controlled drugs and the groups were responsible for a significant input of Class A drugs which were traded downstream in Holyhead and Llandudno.

“The crime groups combined forces to gain control and supply cocaine and heroin and operated as a consortium with groups in Merseyside and Manchester.

“They were dealing drugs on a commercial scale and the estimate of what they were supplying can be indicated by the purity of the drugs and the amount of drugs found at a safe house and the amount of benzocaine, a mixing agent being distributed.”

Gray’s lieutenants were Cain Jones and Richard Blake Williams who were both responsible for “downstreaming” the drugs via a storage facility at a co-defendant’s house

Phillip Scarisbrick was the trusted superintendent who provided the benzocaine to the crime gangs.

Working for Matthew Jones’ Llandudno crime gang was Lee Jones, who was responsible for the distribution of cocaine and maintaining contact with the Manchester-based wholesale supplier Jordan Peeks helped by his brother, Jay.

William Carlisle ran a smaller offshoot of the crime syndicate in Rhyl.

North Wales Police made five seizures of drugs. The first was at the Boston Arms in Holyhead where 0.248kg of cocaine was found in a room along with cash totalling £4,000.

Lee Jones was apprehended in a garage with cocaine and sets of scales, a hydraulic press and handgun. Police also found a lock knife and a list of names in a caravan on the drive of the property.

Ten members of the drugs gang appeared at Mold with all pleading guilty to conspiring to supply cocaine.

Cain Jones and Richard Williams pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply heroin, while Mattthew Jones, Lee Jones, William Carlisle and Jordan Peeks pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply cannabis.

The conspiracy stretched from October 2015 to November 2017.

Owen Edwards, for Richard Blake Williams, said: “He has fallen right in at the deep end, but he had no enforcement role in this operation.”

Martine Snowdon, for Cain Jones, said: “His grandmother passed away when he was 16.

"His parents were addicts and he followed the same pattern and has been heavily addicted to drugs.

"This sentence is an opportunity for him to turn things around.”

The court was told Matthew Jones was “old enough to know better, but young enough still to turn his life around”.

Simon Killeen, for Lee Jones, said a distinction should be made between the Holyhead arm and the smaller Llandudno arm of the operation, of which Jones was part.

The court heard Jordan Peeks had proved to be an “exemplary” prisoner during his 13 months on remand and that his brother, Jay, had played a “lower role” in the operations.

Philip Scarisbrick, the court was told, had suffered from drink and drugs problems, while Lee Bamber had worked as a volunteer for a homeless charity, but had sought out “easy money” after his father’s company had run up debts.

Duncan Bould said Liam Roberts was a “follower not a leader and that his involvement was limited”. He had spent time on remand helping to counsel suicidal prisoners.

Sentencing the 10 to terms of imprisonment ranging from four years eight months to 12 years, Judge Niclas Parry said: “This was an exceptionally sophisticated commercial enterprise involved in the supply of class A drugs along the North Wales corridor which involved two criminal groups.

“The consequences were that Class A drugs saturated the streets of North Wales and the amount of drugs can only be described a staggering.

"Three counties suffered the influx of drugs.”

DRUGS gang members sentenced together were:

Liam Roberts, 30, of Seabank Road, Rhyl, received four years eight months.

Jay Peeks, 33, of Mallow Street, Hulme, Greater Manchester, received six-and-a-half years.

Jordan Peeks, 27, also of Mallow Street, Hulme, Greater Manchester, received 10 years.

Phillip Scarisbrick, 37, of Moss Gate Road, Liverpool, received nine-and-a-half years.

Lee Bamber, 45, of Cholmondeley Road, Salford, received six years.

Cain Jones, 23, of Bodlondeb Terrace, Kingsland Road, Holyhead, received 12 years.

Lee Jones, 28, of Elwy Gardens, Llandudno received eight years

Matthew Jones, 28, of Hazelwood Close, Colwyn Bay, received 12 years.

William Carlisle, 27, of Abergele Road, Old Colwyn, received 10-and-a-half years.

Richard Blake Williams, 25, of Cleveland Crescent, Holyhead received 10 years.

Aled Gray will be sentenced on January 18