These are the faces of the eight heroin and crack cocaine dealers jailed after 20 London to Norwich supply lines were cut by police.
The deadly drug supply lines to Norfolk have been cut and numerous dealers arrested and jailed as part of Operation Orochi.
The operation focuses on analysing the data of mobile phones used to buy and sell crack cocaine and heroin between London and Norfolk and shutting them down at their source.
As part of the operation, which has been praised by Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick and Norfolk’s chief constable Simon Bailey, eight people have so far been given a total of 28 years and three months in jail.
They are:
• Wayne Mann, 35, from London who was sentenced to four years and two months in prison in April.
Norwich Crown Court heard Mann had possession of two phones which were found to contain a high volume of activity, including more than 11,200 calls and over 23,000 SMS messages between the autumn of 2019 and the early part of 2020.
The text messages included bulk text messages offering drugs to known drug users and indicated that Mann was not just someone who was sent out to deal drugs on the street but had a “middle management” role with the Tommy network.
Mann was arrested at an address in London in January this year, when officers found 120g of heroin, worth between £4800 and £7200, as well as about £2,000 in cash.
He was jailed after he admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine between September 18 last year and January 22 this year.
He also admitted possessing heroin with intent to supply on January 9 this year.
• In April Sean Lutkin, 29, of no fixed abode and Bradley Chambers, formerly of Brewers Court, Norwich, were sentenced to two years and three years in prison respectively, after they both admitted two counts of being concerned in class A drugs and two other offences of possession with intent to supply class A drugs after they were stopped by police in Ketts Hill, Norwich, in January this year.
Lutkin, the driver of the Vauxhall Corsa, was found to have the SIM card of a phone belonging to a Class A drug dealing group in his underwear while Chambers, a front seat passenger, had hidden the phone it belonged to in his pants.
• Meanwhile Callum Ascione, 25, formerly of London, was jailed for 28 months in April this year after he admitted four counts of supplying Class A drugs.
He also admitted being concerned in supplying controlled Class A drugs, two counts of being concerned in supplying Class A drugs, two counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs as well as a further count of possession of class B drugs.
Ascione had been caught supplying class A drugs to an undercover police officer, named Tommo, in Norwich as part of Norfolk Police’s Operation Granary crackdown in January 2017.
But having been bailed in relation to the initial offences in September 2019, he again became involved in county lines drugs dealing and was found in possession of a phone belonging to the “Billy” line group.
• In January this year, Matthew Mills, 33, from London, was jailed for six years and nine months in prison after he admitted being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin and possession of cocaine with intent to supply between January and November 2019.
Mills had been identified by police as the leader of a drugs line known as ‘JJ’ in the city. Over a short period of time Mills sent hundreds of text messages to multiple people advertising drugs for sale, evidence from his phones has revealed.
• Last month, Keiron Hunter, 23, of Bull Close Road, Norwich, was sentenced to more than five years in jail, after pleading guilty to two charges concerning the supply of class A drugs.
Hunter was homeless and sleeping rough in London when he was “recruited” by dealers and posted to Norfolk as part of a wider drug operation.
• Two other people so far sentenced for drugs offences after being caught as part of Operation Orochi are Zoe Gloyn, 28, from Kent, who received a two year eight month sentence and Ashley Davies, 29, from Kent who was jailed for two years.
Detective Inspector Robin Windsor-Waite, from Norfolk police, said the impact of Operation Orochi on the supply of class A drugs in Norfolk had been “enormous”.
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