THE LAST members of a drugs gang that stretched its tentacles into Swindon have been jailed.

A police investigation into a network of cannabis farms worth £6 million resulted in 26 men being jailed. Four of them were from Swindon.

Arrested in 2016, the last two members of the gang – controlled by Albanian crime bosses – were jailed at Manchester Crown Court this week. Elton Omuri, 26, and Toni Boboshi, 44, both of Manchester, were sentenced to four years and six years respectively for conspiracy to supply class B drugs.

Based in Manchester and the north west, the gang also had farms in south Yorkshire. They were selling their drugs in Manchester, Sheffield and Swindon. 

Co-operation between Greater Manchester Police and Wiltshire Police helped bring down four Swindon-based members of the gang.

Two of them, Shah Kamaly, 46, of Greenlands Road, and Richard Vincent, 48, of Penhill Drive, were arrested in 2015 after drugs raids by Swindon detectives uncovered six kilos of cannabis at two properties. Later searches found £20,000 in cash. 

Kamaly was sentenced to two years and nine months imprisonment and Vincent to three years imprisonment by a Manchester Crown Court judge last May. Another Swindon pair, Luke Oakley, 33, of Horsham Road, and Wayne Bayford, 28, of Rivergreen, were each jailed for two years.

Following the sentences, Det Con George Booth of Wiltshire Police’s Dedicated Crime Team, said: “The drugs recovered during the warrant and searches were destined for supply within Swindon to a number of identified cannabis dealers, and had a potential street value of over £60,000.

“The local investigation later joined up with an ongoing investigation by Greater Manchester Police with several others arrested for drug supply and money laundering.”

Greater Manchester Police branded the operation to bring down the drugs gang “intense.”

Det Insp Karen Ryan of the force’s Serious and Organised Crime Team, said: “Professing to be part of a sophisticated operation, the group used false names, false addresses and fraudulent documentation to avoid detection by the authorities, frustrate police investigations and attempt to evade criminal prosecution.

“They stretched far beyond the borders of Greater Manchester, pumping the proceeds of their crimes into other cities, spreading the detrimental effects of drug supply across the nation.

“This has been an intense investigation which has relied on the intelligence and the trust of the community and today, we can confidently say these people are safely behind bars, unable to profit from the proceeds of their illicit activity or continue to spread harm through the streets of the UK.”