'Most wanted man' jailed for role in £4.5m drug gang

Alex Male was described as the person "supplying the suppliers"

A man named on the UK's most wanted list after supplying £4.5m worth of cocaine across the West and South West has been jailed for 18 years.

Alex Male, 32, from Weston-super-Mare, was described as the person "supplying the suppliers" with more than 130kg of cocaine in Bristol, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and ketamine, and to money laundering, after he was extradited back to England from Morocco.

Male was sentenced at Exeter Crown Court earlier.

Male was "high-up" in a drug gang of at least four other men, who were sentenced in March to a total of 56 years.

“Alex Male sat at the top of that tree and we believe he was the person in charge," Det Insp Adrian Hawkins, who led the investigation, said.

Male was first arrested in 2020 as part of a South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU) investigation into the supply of class A drugs.

But he went on the run after being released on bail.

'A massive achievement'

Det Insp Hawkins said it took a team of experts from intelligence and cyber-crime, and working with overseas police forces and the National Crime Agency, to "follow the breadcrumbs of Male’s life" to track him down.

He was eventually detained in Morocco on 21 January this year, after trying to enter the country using a fake passport, and was extradited to England.

Det Insp Hawkins said: "It’s a massive achievement not only to prove beyond reasonable doubt someone has committed these crimes and that he sat as high up in the tree that he did, but also the efforts to bring him back to the country... to secure the conviction."

In investigating Male they were "looking for the person sat at home using an online profile to maximise making money while everyone else took the risk on his behalf,” added Det Insp Hawkins.

“It’s much more difficult to find someone like that," he said.

"That’s why it’s taken the time it has to present that evidence in a way that can be fully understood by everybody to know exactly what he’d done, what he was responsible for.”

He said the offences Male committed are about high-level drug supply, adding he was the person "supplying the suppliers".

“Everyone who’s been the victim of a robbery, of a burglary, or even thefts and shoplifting - it all relates to drugs and crimes he was fuelling," he said.

"The benefit of having him sentenced should be felt across the South West."