Thaindian News

London, Nov 23 (IANS) A drug dealers’ family and their associates who used to sell heroin and crack cocaine, a form of cocaine which can be smoked, on the streets of Britain’s Liverpool city has been jailed for a total of 82 years.

Thirteen people involved in running a 24-hour drugs cash and carry service have been jailed after a complex police operation under which the police put the family under surveillance and deployed undercover officers before eventually swooping on the Whitney family clan and their cohorts, the Daily Mail reported.

As the net closed on the drug dealers, officers found an SA80 assault rifle and around 1,200 rounds of ammunition as well as a large quantity of Class A substances which includes heroin, cocaine and many other kinds of drugs.

Undercover officials from Merseyside Police posed as addicts to make ‘test purchases’ to gain necessary evidence while other undercover officers filmed the footage.

The Whitneys used unregistered, pre-paid mobile telephones and deployed untraceable vehicles to meet with addicts, often in a telephone kiosk on a street corner.

When police arrested grandmother Carol Whitney, who was the matriarch and banker, officers found more than 500 wraps of heroin hanging from a bush in her garden.

Judge John Roberts, sitting at Liverpool Crown Court, jailed them all for their role in the conspiracy.