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The operation saw a Norfolk gang send cash payments of almost half a million pounds to another gang in the north west which arranged for bulk packages of cocaine to be posted back.
The Norfolk gang initially sent the cash – in amounts of £25,000 – in the post before switching to couriers. In return, up to 19kg of cocaine came into the county from Blackpool.
Details of the operation emerged at Norwich Crown Court where some of those involved at the Blackpool end were sentenced.
The court heard Sam Roth, 32, collected and counted the cash – helped on one occasion by partner Emma Dickinson, 30 – while Jason Campbell, a former soldier, helped package the drugs to be sent to Norfolk.
The hearing was told that police became aware of the operation in 2022 after officers seized a phone as part of a separate drugs investigation.
On the device they found communications between the Blackpool and Norfolk gangs.
Officers then became aware of packages being sent from Norfolk to Roth’s address in Blackpool.
On October 14, 2022, police intercepted a parcel being sent to Roth at Blackpool’s post centre and found it contained £25,000 in cash.
The following month, a package sent to Norfolk from Blackpool was intercepted and found to contain a kilo of cocaine which had Campbell’s finger-prints on it.
Roth, Campbell and Dickinson were then arrested by police in Blackpool.
Will Carter, prosecuting, said their operation “dealt in kilos of cocaine for which many hundreds of thousands were paid to them”.
The court heard Louis Boyle was a key player in the Norfolk gang sending the cash up to Blackpool in return for the cocaine.
The 35-year-old, of Howard’s Way, Bradwell, ran an online network called ‘Coke Kings’ that he used to supply customers across the UK.
The former offshore worker was arrested in Norfolk and went on to admit conspiring to supply a Class A drug and being concerned in the supply of ecstasy, cannabis, and cocaine.
He was jailed for a total of 16 years in May 2024.
The amount of cash sent from Norfolk to Blackpool between August and October 2022 is thought to have been in the region of £425,000.
Earlier this month, Roth, from Blackpool, appeared at court in Norwich having admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine.
Campbell, also from Blackpool, admitted being concerned in supplying cocaine to another.
He also admitted being concerned in the supply of a class B drug, ketamine.
Appearing alongside Roth and Campbell, who appeared at court using crutches, was Dickinson, also from Blackpool, also appeared in the dock having admitted transferring criminal property, namely £25,000.
Judge David Pugh jailed Roth for nine years, telling him: “The whole idea of setting up to supply drugs is to make money and Mr Roth was entrusted with a significant amount of cash”.
Sentencing Campbell to 54 months, he said the defendant “clearly had an operational function in the chain and must’ve had an awareness and understanding of the scale of the operation”.
The judge accepted that Dickinson’s involvement was “on one occasion”.
She was given a 12-month community order, with 150 hours unpaid work and five days Rehabilitation Activity Requirement (RAR).
Both she and Roth embraced before he was led down to the cells and she left the dock.
Martin McCarthy, for Roth, said the defendant had been “recruited to play a specific role” at what was a “weak point in his life” but had only been participating for four months.
“He was never involved in drugs directly and only ever received sums of cash,” said Mr McCarthy.
Richard Butcher, for Campbell, said he had served in Iraq and Afghanistan and that the trauma he suffered was part of the reason he turned to drugs in the first place.
John Lucas, on behalf of Dickinson, said she had performed a “limited function” in the enterprise.
