Kent-wide £5million drug ring smashed by Kent Police

A COUNTY-WIDE £5million drug ring was smashed by Kent Police in March and four men will be jailed for their part in it.

A jury at Maidstone Crown Court have today (Wednesday) found Hugh Webb, 52, from Dagenham in Essex, guilty for his part in of conspiracy to supply cannabis.

Brothers Danny and Michael Malone, along with Martin Merritt, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis at an earlier hearing.

The four men will be sentenced together at the end of October at Maidstone Crown Court.

The court heard how officers from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate swooped on vans which were on a driveway just off Queen Street, Paddock Wood, on March 4.

Danny Malone, 43, of Collier Street in Tonbridge, was in one of the vans and was exchanging approximately 200 kilos of packaged cannabis resin.

Detectives investigating the drug deal soon gathered evidence to suggest a second, larger exchange was to take place elsewhere in Kent later that week.

On March 8, police went to Sandy Lane in Great Chart, near Ashford, where they stopped a Renault lorry hauling a 40ft refrigerated container being driven by Hugh Webb.

Inside the container, officers discovered more than one tonne of cannabis resin, packaged in a similar way to the drugs found in Paddock Wood.

In a nearby storage unit in Great Chart, officers found Michael Malone, 46, of Hove, East Sussex, and Martin Merritt, 39, of Dagenham, Essex, sitting inside a silver Mercedes. The storage unit had been rented in Danny Malone's name the month before.

In total, officers had seized just over 1.9 tonnes of cannabis resin in the space of a week with an estimated street value of £4.9million.

A fifth man, Marek Sieprawski, was found not guilty by majority verdict.

Detective sergeant Andy Nicoll from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate said: "This was one of the biggest drugs seizures of its kind in Kent and the sheer quantities of cannabis resin and their monetary value show how serious this operation was.

"We don't yet know if these drugs were destined for the streets of Kent or further afield, but this investigation and seizure of a large quantity of cannabis has hit the drugs network of Kent hard.

"It sends a clear message - drugs will not be tolerated in Kent and we will do everything in our power to catch those responsible for supplying drugs and bring them to justice."

http://www.canterburytimes.co.uk 11/09/2013