Gangs jailed for flooding Scunthorpe streets with cocaine

Two organised gangs who flooded Scunthorpe’s streets with cocaine have been jailed after a dramatic arrest.

It came after police stopped them on the M6 in Cheshire, where drugs with the street value of £20 million were seized.

They were transporting 186kg of cocaine hidden in the base of a van to Warrington when they were stopped by police.

It as the biggest on-land leisure on record in the UK.

A total of 21 people were convicted after an investigation into the gangs, led by Jamie Simpson, 31, and Jamie Oldroyd, 29, of no fixed abode.

Jamie Oldroyd and Jamie Simpson.

Seized phone footage revealed how the gangs were generating huge amounts of money from selling drugs.

Oldroyd was sentenced to 14 years and three months and Simpson was jailed for 11 years and six months for their parts.

Liverpool Crown Court heard how the gangs were “extremely well organised” and would dispose of phones and regularly change vehicles to avoid detection.

Oldroyd’s gang were involved in the supply of cocaine across the country including Warrington, Carlisle, Scunthorpe, Darlington, Manchester and London.

During a 14 month long convert operation, police found Oldroyd’s DNA in a house containing over £100,000 in cocaine, drug mixing and cutting equipment, including scales, spray bottles, plastic packaging and gloves.

Mike Evans, detective chief inspector at the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said: “This operation has not only resulted in the largest haul of cocaine being seized in the history of Cheshire but also the largest national in land seizure.

A huge haul of cocaine taken off the streets.

“We have wiped out two organised crime groups, preventing them as well as other gangs from gaining extreme profits and in doing so have protected our communities along with vulnerable adults from criminals who bring with them intimidation, exploitation and violence.

“To transport such a colossal amount of cocaine you have got to be a confident, arrogant and greedy individual. Simpson has proved that he is exactly that and this is what led him to believe he could bring illegal drugs into Cheshire without being disrupted.

“Despite Oldroyd’s organised crime group going to great lengths to conceal their criminality and avoid being caught we were always going to be one step ahead. Let this be a warning to other organised criminals out there, Cheshire is and always will be, a very difficult place to operate.”