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Cannock dealer locked up for role in big drugs ring

A cocaine dealer from Staffordshire who was part of an international drugs ring has been locked up for four years.

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Darren Moore was involved in importing cocaine from South America and supplying drugs in Cannock, the West Midlands and further afield.

The operation was foiled when police stopped a van in Hednesford and found cocaine with a street value of £100,000.

Moore, aged 46, of Bradbury Lane, Hednesford, admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine at an earlier hearing and was sentenced at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court yesterday.

Other gang members have already received jail sentences totalling more than 30 years following a two-year investigation by Staffordshire Police's Serious and Organised Crime Unit in the UK and overseas.

Last year it was revealed how the ring leaders, brothers Bing and Chad Smith, were in the Citroen van stopped in January 2011 in a planned operation.

Further arrests and searches followed and more drugs, money and associated paraphernalia were seized.

Det Ch Insp Paul Clews, head of the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said: "This Cannock-based group were part of an international network which saw cocaine arrive in the area from countries including Peru and Venezuela."

Several of them were sentenced last September following two trials at Stafford Crown Court.

Bing Smith, aged 45, of Acorn Close, Heath Hayes, admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine, cannabis and amphetamines and was jailed for 10 years earlier this year.

Chad Smith, 34, of Platt Street, Cannock, admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis and received a six-year prison sentence.

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