Three drug dealers who set up an “industrial scale” laboratory making ecstasy pills worth £1.4million have been jailed.
Raymond Cooper’s gang used an encrypted messaging platform to discuss the manufacture of Class A drugs at a lock-up near South Ockendon, Essex.
Cooper, 63, was called “Ray” in secret EncroChat texts with Sean Lawrence, 35, and both of their vehicles were seen circling the “highly sophisticated” factory.
After Lawrence’s arrest in February 2021, police conducted a raid at his home address on Hollis Place, Grays.
Officers then located and opened a deposit box in Ilford, seizing £30,000 cash.
Days later, the syndicate’s fixer Kenneth Stone, 34, of Adamson Road, Canning Town, was tasked in incriminating messages with clearing the South Ockendon storage unit of drug paraphernalia.
But detectives caught him in the act.
Inside the building, more than 170kg of ketamine, a production factory, scales and cutting agent were uncovered.
Stone’s van parked nearby was stuffed with vast quantities of MDMA powder and ecstasy pills.
EncroChat messages attributed to him detailed his own separate operation to supply cocaine.
Cooper, of North Dene, Chigwell, was held in June that year and high-value items, including a £9,000 Rolex watch, were confiscated.
At Southend Crown Court on Friday, he was jailed for 10 years and four months having admitted being concerned in the supply of drugs.
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For their part Lawrence, who utilised his experience in engineering for large-scale ecstasy production, received seven years and four months. Stone - who runs a waste management firm - got eight years, four months.
Detective Inspector Yoni Adler, of Essex Police’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said: “This was a highly sophisticated and organised operation leading in the bulk manufacture and supply of MDMA in Essex.
“The production of these harmful substances involved cutting drugs like MDMA and ketamine with other substances.
“The nature of illegal drug supply and manufacturing means the user can never really know what they’re taking.
“Pills may be much stronger or more deadly than advertised, or otherwise contain other damaging substances to dilute or adulterate them.
“Drugs like MDMA, ketamine and cocaine are illegal for a very real reason.
“They ruin lives. The trade and use of these substances brings with it wider offending, including violence, disorder and theft.
“We will pursue those at the top of these illicit operations relentlessly, ensuring they face justice even if it takes months or years to see an outcome.”
