Jailed Telford drug dealers are chased for cash
Eight men – including four from Telford – who have been jailed for their roles in a drugs conspiracy are now facing proceeds of crime investigations.
Jason Whitehead, 44, Michael Smith, 53, Leslie Hammond, 49, and Neil Haseley, 36, were concerned in the supply of cocaine and cannabis in the Shropshire area.
Two men from the West Midlands – James Maxwell, 44, and Jimmy Devlin, 29 – and Bajram Berisha, 20, from London, and Michael Hurley, 45, from Somerset, were also involved in the drugs operation. A fifth man from Telford, Christopher Powell, 38, was found in possession of cannabis.
They were all sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court and at a recent hearing applications under the Proceeds of Crime Act were made against eight of the defendants by the Crown Prosecution Service. A hearing scheduled for January 23 will determine the level of any confiscation orders.
The defendants, who were involved in the supply of drugs between June 2013 and December 2014, were arrested during a joint inquiry by West Mercia and West Midlands detectives. The court heard police tracked various quantities of cocaine with a potential street value of £60,000 being brought into Telford from the Birmingham area.
Maxwell and Whitehead were the leading players and officers discovered links to drug dealers in Middlesex and Somerset.
Smith was recruited by Whitehead after another courier was arrested and detectives in Telford were able to link Smith with Hammond.
Further arrests followed in December, 2014, after Powell and Haseley were seen with Whitehead and were later stopped by police in possession of drugs.
Officers traced another cannabis factory at Shelmore Valley Farm at Norbury, near Newport, a property linked to Haseley.
In the West Midlands police were aware of Maxwell handing over £27,000 in cash to Berisha.
In August Whitehead, of Thistle Close, Randlay, was jailed for six years, Smith, of Stonedale, Sutton Hill, for six years and 10 months, Hammond, of Queens Road, Donnington, for four years and Haseley, of Waterloo Street, Ironbridge, for three years. Powell, of Meadow Road, Newport, was fined. Maxwell, of Ireton Road, Handsworth, was given three consecutive sentences, totalling 17 years and nine months.
Devlin, of Jarvis Road, Erdington, was jailed for 32 months, Hurley for 12 months and Berisha for 10 months
