A trusted courier for an organised crime gang was stopped with a "block" of heroin worth an estimated £40,000 in his car.
Scott Franks, 50, was pulled over by drugs police on the M5 motorway near Bridgwater, Somerset, on March 23, and his vehicle was searched. Inside officers found a kilo block of heroin plus a further kilo of a cutting agent, used to dilute the drug to increase profits.
Franks, of St Austell, in Cornwall, was jailed for four years at Taunton Crown Court after being convicted of possession with intent to supply a Class A drug and being concerned in the supply of a Class A drug. An investigation by Avon and Somerset Police found he had been acting as a courier for a Merseyside based crime gang, and had been making regular journeys between the North West and Devon and Cornwall over a six month period.
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Merseyside Police, the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit and forces across the south west have been attempting to shut down so-called county lines drugs operations in recent months. Coastal towns such as Plymouth, Torquay and Newquay have been frequent targets for ruthless gangsters hundreds of miles away in Merseyside as a market for heroin and crack cocaine.
Detective Sergeant Jonathan Atkin said: “This offender was involved in a county lines drugs operation and was instrumental in facilitating the supply of heroin over a significant period of time. Criminal operations like this one are corrosive and cause untold harm to communities, often exploiting vulnerable people in the process.
“We worked in partnership with our colleagues at the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit, and we’re grateful for their expertise and support."
