A court has sentenced 18 members of an international crime group, responsible for what is believed to be Britain's largest ever detected drugs conspiracy, to up to 32 years in jail following the country's longest-running criminal trial. The network smuggled billions of dollars worth of heroin, cocaine, and cannabis for drug dealers across Britain from 2015 to 2018, according to the UK National Crime Agency (NCA).

The operation was so extensive that it required two criminal trials, with one lasting 23 months—a record in England and Wales—and the other lasting nine months. Reporting details about the case became possible after a judge at Manchester Crown Court in northern England lifted media restrictions on Monday following verdicts in the second trial.

It was revealed that the NCA and Dutch police began working on the case in 2018 after the vast scale of the gang's offending became clear. The group is believed to have imported more than 50 tonnes of heroin, cocaine, and cannabis in various separate smuggling operations. Jurors heard how the gang concealed drugs in consignments of strong-smelling foodstuffs such as onions, garlic, and ginger.

The ringleader, Paul Green, 59, was jailed for 32 years after also being convicted of fraud by false representation. Two other offenders from the 18 received sentences of 18 and 20 years respectively after being extradited from the Netherlands. The gang used encrypted communications, faked documents, changed their names by official means, and acquired live and defunct businesses to disguise their drugs imports.

The network smuggled drugs from Belgium and the Netherlands, renting warehouses across northern England to store them. Joint UK-Dutch operations led to the seizure of 450 kilogrammes of cocaine and heroin and two tonnes of cannabis in three seizures at ports in eastern England and in the Netherlands.

Judge Paul Lawton told the offenders, 'It was only the dedication, persistence, and professionalism of the National Crime Agency working in conjunction with their Dutch counterparts that the scale and complexity of your operation was unmasked.' He added, 'The harm caused beyond the importation is incalculable,' noting they 'facilitated the distribution of drugs by organised crime groups the length and breadth of the country.'

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