Two more men have been jailed by a Carlisle judge for their roles in a nationwide £53 million cocaine supply plot — taking the number now sentenced to 12.
The respective roles of Gary Gittins, 43, and 41-year-old Mark Knowles wer exposed after police seized 1kg of the class A drug from a street dealer in the Windermere area during February, 2023.
After that dealer was detained, detectives made further arrests and amassed a wealth of evidence which showed that vast quantities of cocaine were being trafficked into the UK by boat from abroad.
Trusted couriers would collect the imported consignments and transport them to safe houses, many in the Greater Manchester area. Cocaine would then be distributed to towns and cities across England, Wales and Scotland, for onward sale to street users.
Hundreds of kilos of cocaine, potentially worth around £53 million, were traded during a conspiracy which ran for 15-months.
Last March, nine men from the Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire areas, were handed prison sentences totalling more than 100 years for conspiracy to supply cocaine. A 10th was handed a 15-year jail term later in 2024.
And at Carlisle Crown Court this afternoon, two more defendants — Greater Manchester warehousemen Gittins and Knowles — were punished after they admitted the cocaine supply plot charge.
Huge amounts of cocaine — and cash generated by the dealing — were stored by Gittins, said prosecutor Tim Evans.
His postcode was trusted by others involved in the conspiracy who made almost two dozen deliveries, and it was estimated that cocaine potentially worth more than £17.5million had left the house.
Knowles’ address, said Mr Evans, had effectively been a cocaine safe house and onward distribution centre, linked to one of several organised crime groups involved.
Around £7.7 million worth of the class A drug was delivered to Knowles’ home, in total, on three separate dates.
Mitigation was advanced by barristers in respect of both men, for whom positive character references had been provided — in Knowles’ case, one from a magistrate.
Gittins, of Woodland Avenue, Hindley Green, had also admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply having also run a small dealing operation. He was handed a seven-and-a-half year prison sentence.
Knowles, of Prestwich Street, Atherton, was handed a term of four years and 10 months.
Passing sentence, Judge Barker said of the overall plot: “It was a significant and widescale dealing operation which had many parts and many actors.“
- A 13th person, 30-year-old Magdalena Sadlo, of Bracknell, Berkshire, also admits conspiracy to supply cocaine, along with ketamine, cannabis and conspiring to launder money. She is due to be sentenced at the crown court in June, and remains remanded in custody.
