Drug gang ordered to pay back £2m

The drugs were discovered across the West Midlands

Four men who were part of a gang which smuggled drugs into the UK have been ordered to pay back more than £2m.

Keith Jeremy, 43, of Sutton Coldfield, Martin Askew, 39, of no fixed abode, David Loone, 45, of Solihull, and John Pollard, 35, were jailed last December.

Jeremy, who "orchestrated the conspiracy" and was jailed for 18 years, was ordered to pay back £1m at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday.

Askew, who is serving a five-year jail term, was also told to pay back £1m.

The gang was involved in smuggling cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis into the UK.

West Midlands Police confiscated more than 300kg of drugs which it said had an estimated street value of £30m.

'Blighted communities'

Pollard, from Cossall, Nottinghamshire, who was sentenced to five years for drug trafficking, was told to pay back £34,000 at the confiscation hearing.

Loone, who was sentenced to two years in jail for money laundering, was ordered to pay back £24,000.

Det Ch Insp Mark Griffiths said more than £480,000 of cash had already been seized as well as "millions of pounds of drugs, which the gang had invested a lot of money in prior to their capture".

He said: "This operation stopped a substantial amount of deadly drugs getting to the streets where they would have harmed people and blighted communities.

"We have now stripped an entire crime gang of both drugs and the benefit of their criminal lifestyle."

Four other men were also jailed last year in connection with investigation.