Drug gang is jailed for over 100 years

Thomas O’Brien, aged 30, of Bugbrooke Road, Kislingbury, was jailed for three years.

Steven Payne, aged 45, of Weedon Road, Nether Heyford, has been sentenced to two years and nine months in prison. They both worked as drugs couriers and helped to sell on the cocaine to the group in Southampton.

The longest sentence was handed to Joseph O’Neill, aged 36, of Jacques Road, Burton Latimer, who was jailed for 20 years after he was convicted of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs following a nine-week trial at Leicester Crown Court in October and November.

The court heard that O’Neill was the head of a criminal gang in Northamptonshire that sourced an estimated 28kg of high purity cocaine from Cambridgeshire-based criminals and sold to an organised crime group on the south coast.

O’Neill’s second in command, Sean Byrne, aged 48, of Purser Road, Abington, Northampton, has been jailed for 15 years.

Micah Walfall, aged 29, previously of West Cotton Close, Northampton and John Monteith, aged 27, of Stockholm Close, Corby, have both been sentenced to ten years in prison after they admitted helping O’Neill to distribute the drugs.

Other dealers from Northamptonshire sentenced included Michael Wilson, aged 29, previously of Cricketers Green, Weldon, who was given a seven-and-a-half year sentence and Adrian Dowling, aged 48, of High Street, Pitsford, who was sentenced to six years, plus one to year to run consecutively after pleading guilty to producing fraudulent documentation.

Daniel Shrubb, aged 33, of Henry Bird Way, Northampton, has received a prison sentence of three years and four months, while Christopher Jones, aged 26, of Park Road, Hanslope, Milton Keynes, had also admitted one count each of supplying ecstasy, supplying cocaine and supplying cannabis in addition 
to the cocaine supply conspiracy. He was jailed for five years.

The court heard that O’Neill’s network of couriers are believed to have made 158 trips to Southampton to deliver the drugs over a two-year period.

Three police forces launched separate investigations into the activity before the probes were linked by Northamptonshire Police and passed to the East Midlands Special Operations Unit