PICTURED: Family gang sold 'legal highs' online labelled as sports supplements in racket

Adam Maybury, aged 28, of Woodfield Crescent, Burntwood, played the 'lead role' in the business, which he operated from a luxury villa in Spain.

His mother, Caroline Wakefield, aged 57, from Burntwood, was involved in the plot, which saw 20kg of drugs such as 4FA, MXP and Pentedrone sent to customers over a two-year period.

The drugs were sold online before being labelled and packaged as sports supplements in order to get through customs.

Money from sales made through websites, including chemcube.com, chemsdirect.com, europalab.com and centralsupplements.co.uk, were paid into two companies – Sisco and Quiddu Ltd – set up to launder the money, with sums of up to £250,000 being paid in between 2013 and 2014.

The crime group received average monthly payments of £45,000 from online sales at its peak. The conspiracy lasted from June 2011 to September 2014.

Maybury had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import class A drugs, conspiracy to import class B drugs, conspiracy to supply class A and B drugs and money laundering and was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court today.

His business partner and best friend Thomas Marshall, aged 28, of Leafendon Avenue, Burntwood, was found guilty of conspiracy to supply and import class B drugs and money laundering.

Marshall was given a sentence of two years and nine months after the court heard how he had made 'barely anything' from the plot.

Maybury's mother, of Dunston Drive, pleaded guilty to money laundering. She was given a 12-month sentence suspended for 18 months.

While he travelled between the UK and Spain to purchase and package them for distribution, Maybury got his mother to set up companies and buy properties back home in order to spread out profits and avoid detection.

Wakefield also leased the group's UK office – a converted flat on Chase Road, Burntwood – and was director and shareholder of Quiddu Ltd.

Siobhan Collins, defending Wakefield, said Maybury was 'the golden boy who could do no wrong' in the eyes of his mother, who had tried to shut herself off from what her son was doing – except for one text read out in court where she had warned him to 'be careful' with his 'dodgy dealings'.

Maybury's sister Faye Maybury, aged 30, of Grenfell Road Bloxwich, admitted conspiring to supply class B drugs and money laundering.

Working from the UK office, she administered the group's websites, processed invoices, ensured payments were made and also posted packages on her brother's behalf.

Dean Russell, 27, of Boney Hay Road, Burntwood, who was Maybury's cousin, took over Marshall's distribution role after a fallout with Maybury. He admitted conspiring to import class B drugs and money laundering and was given a three-year sentence. Tarlowchan Dubb, defending Maybury, told the court the scheme had start out 'legitimately' but soon turned into an illegal operation.

Customers would pay for the chemicals via bank transfer and one WhatsApp conversation between the pair read out in court revealing that Maybury saw the illegality of the drugs as the customers problem, as they were legal where they had been sending them from.

Prosecuting, Nicholas Mather, said: "The drugs we are talking about are clearly harmful to the person taking them and they may not have been aware of the effects they could have and the reasons they were illegal.

"They have been described as legal highs but they have never been legal, they are chemical substances which are not controlled or tested."

Maybury had been using the money to live a lavish lifestyle in Spain, where he rented a villa and high-end cars, as well as paying for trips to Cuba and Australia as holidays.

It was during one of his trips to Cuba when the scheme came undone.

As Maybury had decided to take a holiday and Marshall had organised a visit to Dubai at the same time, Maybury asked his cousin Dean Russell to look after the business in Spain.

Russell was arrested after leaving the country after packages were intercepted by UK border patrols.