Gang shipped crack cocaine and heroin in to Warwick and Leamington

[dutchman]

The drugs were brought in on an "industrial scale"


Michael Hedli, Shaan Khan and Steven Bicknell

A gang that shipped hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of drugs from Birmingham into Warwick and Leamington has been jailed for more than 20 years.

The county lines gang made more than 300 shipments of crack cocaine and heroin into the towns between February 2015 and October 2016.

Each shipment consisted of drugs with an estimated street value of between £500 and £1,000.

The investigation into the gang was launched by Warwickshire Police's Serious Organised Crime Unit in 2015 after local officers investigations identified the organised supply of drugs into the town.

The five gang members jailed for conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin are:

Michael John Hedli, 41, of Humphris Street, Warwick, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years after being found guilty.

Paul Noel Hodgson, 26, of Holly Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years after being found guilty.

Steven Kevin Bicknell, 33, of Field Barn Road, Hampton Magna, Warwickshire, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years after being found guilty.

Shaan Ali Khan, aged 20, of Kenilworth, was sentenced to three years and nine months after pleading guilty.

Ian John Ward, 45, of Wellesbourne Road, Birmingham, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years after being found guilty.

Following the sentencing, Detective Inspector Alan Townsend, from the Warwickshire Police Serious Organised Crime Unit, said: "This was a well-organised operation that saw drugs being transported into Warwickshire on an industrial scale.

"It was a typical county lines drugs business, with runners used to transport the goods from a large city into smaller towns."