Shropshire leader of drug dealer gang is jailed for 8 years

Dwayne Jackson, 29, of Claverley, was sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison as nine other dealers were sentenced as part of the police's Operation No Deal.

The group admitted their roles in an "organised and professional" operation.

The 10-strong gang sold drugs to undercover police officers across a five-month period between October 2012 and March 2013.

But the conspiracy lasted until September 2013, while many of the offenders were still on bail.

Jackson was arrested by police in September 2013, and officers found the self-employed barber had £1,400 in cash.

He was based in leafy Claverley, but operated his drugs trade in Wolverhampton.

On 23 occasions, at least one of the group sold drugs to the undercover officers in rented cars on car parks at a McDonald's restaurant and a pet store in the city.

Judge Paul Farrar told Jackson, of Aston Court, Claverley: "You were the person that controlled the conspiracy. Of the 24 instances, virtually all of them involved you. You were the architect of this conspiracy and controlled the supply of drugs and I have no doubt that you made a significant profit from this."

Operation No Deal has already seen 23 dealers put behind bars for a total of more than 50 years, while last month seven men were given jail sentences totalling more than 21 years as part of the operation.

DCI Paul Drover, of West Midlands Police, who led Operation No Deal, said he was pleased with the sentences but added that the fight against drugs in Wolverhampton was not over.

He said: "We are very aware that by taking action against a number of individuals, this opens the door to the next wave of dealers. We will continue to do everything we can to try to stop this happening and take action against those criminals. I hope we have shown that we take all information very seriously and will act upon it."

Over the last nine months, officers arrested more than 60 people during early morning raids at addresses across the city which led to 40 being charged with drugs offences.

The court heard that undercover police officers contacted the dealers on a mobile phone number obtained from an addict, which became known as the "D-line."

Jackson had already got two previous convictions for supplying drugs, as had Shaun Davidson-King, 29, of Valley Road, Park Village, Wolverhampton, who was sentenced to five years and eight months for both offences to run concurrently.

Another defendant, Michael O'Keefe, who was senior in the operation, was sentenced to four and a half years in jail.

Miss Jennifer Josephs, prosecuting, talked the court through the 23 meetings the officers had with the dealers.

Police had raided the home of a former partner of Jackson and found the kitchen worktop set up for bagging up drugs.

Miss Josephs added: "Police found large numbers of wraps, and each was put into a collection of wraps ready for them to be taken out to supply."

She said there was 184 wraps of heroin, 167 wraps of crack cocaine, four bags of cannabis weighing roughly an ounce, and £4,000 of cash found in the house.

Between October 29, 2012 and March 20, 2013, almost 11,000 calls or texts were received by the D-line from 519 different numbers.

Judge Farrar said: "That is many calls and it is impossible to quantify how many of these were about drugs other than saying that."

Mr Anthony Bell, for Jackson, said of the head of the group: "He has not got a good record by any means. There is no evidence of him cutting the drugs to provide larger quantities which indicates a lack of sophistication and that this operation was at the lower end of the scale and indicates some distance from the source.

"He has a broad extended family which he feels like he has let down."

Mr Bell said Jackson's father was involved in a charity called Guns and Gangs, which spends time working against organised crime.