Leaders of Wrexham drugs gang each jailed for 10 years

Judge Niclas Parry said the gang's effect on the community was incalculable

Two men have each received 10-year jail terms for leading a gang supplying cocaine worth tens of thousands of pounds into the Wrexham area.

Simon Roberts, 40, from Cefn Mawr, and Wayne McKenzie, 40, from Manchester, admitted drugs conspiracy and money laundering charges at Caernarfon Crown Court on Thursday.

Police mounted a covert operation in 2013, bugging Roberts's business premises, the hearing was told.

Other gang members were also jailed.

Taxi driver David Taylor, 55, from Pentre Gwyn, Wrexham, acted as a courier with 44-year-old Philip Burke, from Whiston, Liverpool, the judge heard.

Taylor was jailed for six years and eight months and Burke for five years and four months.

Burke had been found in possession of £45,000.

'Sophisticated operation'

Six year sentences were imposed on David Arfon Jones, 31, from Ruabon, and Jason Maddocks-Jones, 35, from Chirk.

Laura Roberts, 26, from Cefn Mawr, got an 18-month suspended sentence with 300 hours of unpaid work for providing banking arrangements for her husband.

She was the only defendant to have pleaded not guilty.

Lyndsey Bradley, 26, from Liverpool, the partner of McKenzie, got a 14-month suspended sentence, also with 300 hours unpaid work, for a similar offence.

Judge Niclas Parry said the case involved a criminal syndicate bringing cocaine into north Wales, particularly around the Wrexham area, in a sophisticated operation, resulting in large profits.

He said the effect on the community was incalculable.