Fenland drugs baron jailed for 15 years after police thwarted covert drugs operations

A DRUGS baron from the Fens who was caught after an eight month covert operation has been jailed for 16 years.

Marcus Brown of Guyhirn was the mastermind of an operation that planned to smuggle a million pounds worth of Class A drugs into Britain via drops from light aircraft.

Det Chief Insp Mark Hosty said: "This organised crime group was operating on a regional, national and international level."

At Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, Brown, 50, of Mast Lodge, Selwyn Corner, Guyhirn, was sentenced after earlier pleading guilty to supplying class A drugs and two Proceeds of Crime Act charges.

Brown was described by police as having access to multi kilo wholesale amounts of drugs, and was "cash rich and actively engaged in the expansion of his criminality".

He travelled widely throughout Europe, the Caribbean and China in pursuit of his drug trafficking activities.

Robert Bills, 51, of Highgrove, Long Sutton, was jailed for six years after admitting conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. He was a courier and described as a "low level drug supplier" employed by Brown.

Of the other eight defendants- jailed for terms ranging from two years to 12 years- was another Wisbech man, Robert Broderick, 46, who received a five year sentence for being a supporting courier in the collection of heroin for Brown.

DCI Hosty added: "This investigation stopped a massive amount of drugs coming into the Midlands and the convictions of these criminals have prevented them becoming international drug smugglers - which was clearly their aim."

During last month's court hearing, police revealed they had filmed a dummy run of the aircraft being prepared for airlifting drugs into this country: the gang actually transported a large army kit bag of sugar, which was thrown from the plane into a clearing.

The team then prepared themselves for the real thing but by then police had rounded up and arrested most of the suspects.