AN Ellesmere Port man who recruited people in Britain to receive drugs as part of an international crime gang has been jailed.

The gang involved the setting up of bogus businesses and renting offices to hide the delivery of huge amounts of heroin from Spain and the Netherlands, valued at £900,000.

Gang members were caught after the Border Force intercepted a parcel in London addressed to a home at Northop Hall in Flintshire and the National Crime Agency launched an investigation.

Caernarfon Crown Court heard Dylon Sanger, 34, of Bailey Avenue, Ellesmere Port, accused of recruiting people in Britain to receive drugs, was jailed for nine years. His lawyer said Sanger left school without qualifications and took to drugs in his teens.

Stephen Hunt, 60, of Great Oxendon, Market Harborough, played a key role in a conspiracy to import drugs, setting up a bogus linen firm and seeking a job with the NCA during the offending. He was jailed for 10 years and nine months.

Darren Barrett, 41, who was of Rose Villas, Northop Hall, was sentenced to five years and three months. His counsel said he played “no more than a letterbox in this” and had driven to a Mold pub to hand a package to Tyrone Holbrook-Harris, 27, of Hillside Crescent, Buckley, who was jailed for six years.

Judge Nicola Saffman said between January and May last year there had been a “sophisticated and complex” plot to import heroin involving an organised crime group. Between 18 and 20kgs of drugs worth up to £900,000 had been imported, but 90kgs a week were planned.

“Were it not for the Border Force and police thorough investigation, I have no doubt that would have been a successful operation. But I am not sentencing you for that,” the judge remarked to the defendants, who admitted involvement in a drugs plot.