North Wales Police pledge after Wrexham drugs gang sentenced

Sentenced: (Clockwise from top left) David Jones, Wayne McKenzie, Simon Roberts, Jason Maddocks-Jones, David Taylor, Laura Roberts, Lyndsey Bradley, Philip Burke

Police have welcomed jail sentences given to a drugs gang in Wrexham as part of a wider operation to tackle organised crime in north Wales.

Two gang leaders received 10-year jail terms for heading the group supplying cocaine worth tens of thousands of pounds into the area.

Six others also received jail terms at Caernarfon Crown Court.

North Wales Police said it would "tirelessly pursue" such offenders.

Officers mounted a covert operation in 2013, bugging the business premises of Simon Roberts, 40, from Cefn Mawr.

He received a 10 years after admitting drugs conspiracy and money laundering charges along with Wayne McKenzie, 40, from Manchester, who received a similar term on Thursday.

Speaking after the case, Det Con John Gage said: "The arrests were made as part of Operation Scorpion's continued fight against serious and organised crime in the region.

"These sentences under this latest phase of the operation prove to our communities that North Wales Police will tirelessly pursue those who inflict this level of criminality on our streets."

David Taylor, 55, from Pentre Gwyn, Wrexham, and Philip Burke, 44, from Whiston, Liverpool, who acted as couriers for the gang, were also jailed.

Taylor got six years and eight months with five years and four months for Burke who had been found in possession of £45,000.

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.