Drug dealers jailed for eight years after £1m of cocaine seized

Two members of an organised crime group in Wales have been sentenced to 16 years in prison for money laundering and conspiring to supply cocaine with an estimated street value in excess of £1.2 million.

Martyn Pagett, aged 31, from Blaina, and Neil Strange, aged 61, formerly of Blaina but now living in Devon, were arrested in Bristol in August 2014 by officers from the Wales branch of the National Crime Agency.

Officers seized approximately £125,000 in cash from the scene.

National Crime Agency investigators also recovered eight kilos of high purity cocaine from the Cwm Crachen travellers site in Nantyglo, where Pagett was employed as the site warden.

The drugs were found in a port-a-cabin at the site that only Pagett had access to.

A further £9,000 was was recovered at an address linked to Strange in Theale, near Reading.

The NCA says earlier that day, Pagett had travelled down to Abergavenny, where an exchange took place between him and Anthony Moran, aged 33, from Glasgow.

Moran caught a train back to Scotland, but was stopped by British Transport Police in Crewe as a result of NCA intelligence.

He was found to be in possession of one kilo of cocaine and has since been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Pagett was also supplying, amongst others, Ashley Burgham, aged 28, the head of another Organised Crime Group based in Gwent.

Burgham and ten members of his group were sentenced to 54 years in December 2015.

Both Pagett and Strange pleaded guilty and were sentenced today at Cardiff Crown Court to eight and eight and a half years.