Drug dealers warned they will be 'hunted down'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-32256360

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Drug dealers have been warned they will be "hunted down" after 26 men and women in north Wales were jailed.

They operated cocaine and cannabis deals from Caernarfon and had been living a "wealthy lifestyle" before police broke up their operation.

Cash, cars and a speed boat were seized from members of the gang.

But Det Insp Arwyn Jones, from North Wales Police, said the investigation was more about ending the violence and harm they posed to the community.

"We believe this gang posed a huge threat to north west Wales given the level of violence and the sheer scale of the supply of controlled drugs," said DI Jones, the senior investigating officer into Operation Yonside which began five years ago.

"We have made a number of cash seizures on the back of this investigation but we believe that [gang leader] Gavin Thorman and his associates were living a very wealthy lifestyle.

"We have seized vehicles. We have seized a speed boat which belonged to Gavin Thorman so that shows the degree of lifestyle he was living."

North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Winston Roddick said the prosecutions "have dealt a significant blow to the illicit drugs trade and they send an important message that dealers will be hunted down and brought to justice."

A separate gang of 13 supplying cocaine from Liverpool to west and south Wales were also jailed on Friday after £50,000 of the drug was seized by Dyfed-Powys Police.

They supplied cocaine in Carmarthen, Milford Haven, Pembroke Dock and the Rhondda

Detective Inspector Huw Davies, the force's serious and organised crime team said the sentences "sends a clear signal out to the criminal fraternity that drug offences will not be tolerated".