FOUR more members of a large organised crime gang which flooded Chester and Ellesmere Port with kilos of class A drugs have been jailed.

Adam Arthur, Callum Watson, Daniel Riley and Wayne Galland had all previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell class A drugs, and appeared at Chester Crown Court for sentencing on Wednesday, September 30.

All were street dealers in what was known as the Cavanagh gang, where ringleader Mark Cavanagh was sentenced to 14 and a half years in jail earlier this week.

The court previously heard between September 2019 and June 2020, the gang had two established lines of operation: the Dell Line in Lache, which involved between 2.9kg-5.8kg of crack cocaine and heroin, and the Dark Line in Ellesmere Port, which involved between 21.2kg and 42.5kg of the class A drugs.

Police valued the total drugs operation in Lache as between £278k-556k, and Ellesmere Port as between £903,500-£1.8m.

Arthur, 22, and Watson, 24, both admitted being involved in the conspiracy to supply crack cocaine.

Riley, 19 and Galland, 54, both admitted being involved in the conspiracy to supply both crack cocaine and heroin.

Arthur, of Parklands, Ellesmere Port, was a driver on one day for another drug gang member and had been involved in drug dealing on 18 days.

He had no previous convictions.

Watson, of Sheepfield Close, Little Sutton, Ellesmere Port, supplied an undercover police officer with a wrap of cocaine outside Meaney's Cafe in Little Sutton in March. The officer noted Watson had 15 further wraps of cocaine in his possession.

Watson had four previous convictions for five dissimilar offences.

Riley, of Mancot Way, Mancot, previously had possession of one of the graft phones, but there was no suggestion of him acting as a so-called 'trusted lieutenant'.

He was caught dealing drugs at the Dingle bridge, near Grosvenor Bridge, in Chester, having supplied a known female drug user with heroin on April 6 in exchange for a mountain bike which had been stolen that day.

He was still wearing plastic disposable gloves and had cash and the graft phone on him when detained.

A drugs dog uncovered 31 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine at the scene.

Riley had no previous convictions.

Galland, of Nicholas Street, Chester, supplied an undercover officer on two occasions in the car park of the Architect pub in February, each with £25 worth of class A drugs.

Galland had also breached his criminal behaviour order preventing him from entering parts of Chester for the fifth time, and was in breach of a suspended sentence.

He had 47 convictions for 136 offences, mostly for dishonesty and violence, and had a seven-year jail term and an eight-year jail term in 1990 and 2007 respectively for armed robbery.

Simeon Evans, defending Arthur, said the defendant still had ambitions of joining the Parachute Regiment.

He had fallen in with the wrong crowd, despite a good upbringing, and had been restless since leaving school.

There was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation for him, the court heard.

Julian Farley, defending Watson, said it was a one-off street deal which put him in the same position as other drug gang members Curtis McHugh and Anthony Carr, who had each been jailed for 22 months.

Trevor Parry-Jones, defending Riley, said a pre-sentence report showed he was "immature" and "not blessed with the greatest intellectual intelligence".

He was aiming to work as a landscape gardener or gardener and expressed remorse and regret for his actions.

Howard Jones, defending Galland, said the defendant was now clean of drugs for the first time in 30 years, and had not got seriously involved in the drugs gang.

Galland was also given the opportunity to speak to the Honorary Recorder of Chester, Judge Steven Everett himself.

He said he held his hands up for what he had done, and prison had not been much of a deterrent for him, and asked to be given a chance.

Judge Everett replied: "I may not be able to accommodate you, as I have to send out a deterrent to others [with the sentencing], but you will accept you will be at the bottom end of the sentencing."

Addressing the four of them, he said: "The supply of these drugs was in very public areas. It's where decent people go every day and they have to put up with drug dealers.

The Architect is a place where normal people, law-abiding people and tourists, racegoers go. And drug deals were also in various areas dotted around Chester, in alleyways behind main streets.

"This is a true blight on our society."

He told Arthur: "You perhaps should have given a lot of thought to this before you so stupidly got involved."

He told Riley: "The probation officer describes you as young and stupid, I am sure that is right."

Arthur was jailed for 26 months, while Galland and Watson were jailed for 22 months each. However, Galland was jailed for an additional two months for breaching his suspended sentence.

Riley was handed 22 months detention.

All received maximum credit for their guilty plea, plus six months off their sentences due to the current conditions in prisons caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which sees prisoners spend up to 23.5 hours a day in their cells.