Members of a drugs gang who operated in York and Tadcaster have been jailed for a total of 54 years after their leader was caught with £43K of cocaine in a taxi.
North Yorkshire Police’s organised crime unit seized huge hauls of class-A drugs when they dismantled the gang.
Several members were jailed today (Tuesday) at Bradford Crown Court, with another defendant being sent to prison at an earlier hearing in March 2024.
The group had conspired to sell vast amounts of class-A drugs on North Yorkshire’s streets during 2022 and 2023.
Gavin Tuohey, 46, from Tadcaster, was the head of the organised crime group.
He would source large quantities of cocaine for onward supply to others down the supply chain.
He was stopped and arrested by police as he travelled from Leeds to Tadcaster in a taxi.
He was carrying a kilogram block of high-purity cocaine with a street value of up to £43,000 in his rucksack.
Text messages recovered from mobile phones showed that Tuohey would threaten and intimidate other members of the gang when they failed to pay their debts for the cocaine he had supplied.
Tuohey was sentenced to nine years and three months at today’s court hearing, after a guilty plea to conspiracy to supply class-A drugs.
Rhys Morgan, 26, from Tadcaster, was Tuohey’s sidekick and regularly attended Tuohey’s home.
Morgan deputised for Tuohey when he was on holidays and used a relative’s address as a stash house for drugs. It was situated in the row of terraced houses directly behind Tuohey’s home.
Today he also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class-A drugs and was jailed for eight years.
Jamal Lazrak, who’s 29 and of no fixed address, was one of Tuohey’s top contacts at the time. He made numerous quick-turnaround journeys between York and Tadcaster in two black Volkswagen Golfs.
Tuohey had taken one of the vehicles from Lazrak temporarily as a debt repayment. Lazrak was supplied with quantities of cocaine that could be broken down further for onward supply.
He was sentenced today to prison for eight years and three months, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply class-A drugs.
Max Haigh, 23, from York, was a drug-dealer who detectives linked to a number of addresses connected to the investigation.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class-A drugs and was today jailed for six years and four months.
Olivia Heppell, 27, from York, also used to carry drugs in quick turnaround journeys between York and Tadcaster.
She admitted to being a driver for an OCG member on frequent trips to collect cocaine and deliver drugs money.
She was given a two-year jail sentence, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to the same offence.
Luke Atkin, 37, was a regular customer of Tuohey’s and another downstream supplier of cocaine.
He lived in Warrington, Cheshire, and during the conspiracy period made regular journeys to Tadcaster and York to meet other gang members and deal drugs.
Atkin informed the court that he would not be attending the first day of trial and flew out of the UK.
He remains outstanding and is wanted on warrant, a wanted appeal has been issued for any information that could lead to his arrest.
In his absence, he was today sentenced to ten years in jail for conspiracy to supply class-A drugs.
Luke Jenkins, who’s 33 from Leeds, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing in March. He was convicted of 10 years for conspiracy to supply class-A drugs after his fingerprints were found on the packaging.
Another defendant is due to be sentenced at a later date after police arrested him and found drugs in his underwear. The drugs had a potential street value of almost £6,500.
A 33-year-old man was also charged in connection with the conspiracy and pleaded guilty, but he passed away before sentencing.
Following today’s court hearing, Detective Constable Leah Kitchen, of North Yorkshire Police’s organised crime unit, said: “This was a large and detailed investigation that led to an organised crime gang being dismantled, and in doing so we’ve stopped tens of thousands of pounds of high-purity class-A drugs hitting the streets.
“The key players have received significant prison sentences that reflect the seriousness of their crimes but also take them out of circulation for a number of years, which can only be a good thing for communities in Tadcaster and York.”