A "sophisticated" organised crime gang flooded the streets of Leeds with cocaine - but were caught out after police infiltrated their encrypted messages.
Mathew Manners, 43, had been messaging a supplier in London who agreed to stump up the drugs in exchange for cash. The drugs were then dropped off in the LS11 area of Leeds, close to the home of Manners' "trusted associate" Benjamin Connor, 29, who would pick them up.
Leeds Crown Court heard on Tuesday that at least 15kg of cocaine was bought by Manners and Connor between March and September 2020. Connor was caught by police with some of the drug in the July after he had collected it from an address in Basildon. Prosecutor Robert Stevenson told the court: "By way of overview, between the start of the police investigation in March 2020 and the arrest of Matthew Manners in September 2020, he was a principle member of an organised crime gang involved in the large scale acquisition and distribution of class A drugs."
