LEADERS of a drugs gang which took over the homes of vulnerable users and covered for a killer who stabbed a man to death have been jailed for a total of ten years.

Arjun Jadeja, 20, Joshua Walpole, 26, and Benjamin Gosbell, 23, headed a drug-dealing operation across a four-month period in 2018.

A court heard the trio were responsible for running the ‘Rico and Frank’ drug syndicate in Colchester and Ipswich.

Their involvement in the operation was unravelled over the course of a series of raids.

The searches led to the seizure of drugs valued at £11,000, alongside £7,000 in cash.

The first seizure was made in September 2018, when a Ford Transit van was stopped in Spring Lane, Colchester.

The van was driven by Gosbell and Jadeja was a passenger. Inside, officers found 149g of cannabis, as well as a Rambo-style knife.

In October 2018, a housing association reported a property in Brook Street, Colchester, had been taken over by members of the group and the occupant forced out.

Police officers went on to recover heroin and crack cocaine in a raid.

The court heard the property was “replete” with weapons, including machetes, tear gas and a submachine gun-style BB gun, as well as stab vests, balaclavas and cash.

The fingerprints of Jadeja and Walpole were recovered from a board used to cut drugs with caffeine and paracetamol.

In December 2019, Gosbell and Jadeja helped fellow gang member Kieran Hayward after he knifed 32-year-old Daniel Saunders to death in Ipswich in December 2018.

Hayward was on the run from police for days after the attack, which was sparked because he believed Mr Saunders had been involved in a robbery of one of his associates.

Gosbell and Jadeja helped him clean up in a Premier Inn in Colchester before taking him to a caravan in St Osyth owned by Jadeja’s family, where he hid out for four days until police caught up with them.

After they were convicted of assisting an offender, the pair received 30-month jail terms.

Prosecutor Matthew Sorel-Cameron said: “During the conspiracy the drug line was a profitable and highly-organised operation.”

“They were able to draw on financial resources to obtain properties to deal drugs, and to exert pressure on individuals to use their properties.”

Jadeja and Gosbell, both of HMP Norwich, and Walpole, of Orchard Way, Chigwell, each admitted conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin.

Jadeja admitted possession of cannabis with intent to supply.

Walpole also admitted possession with intent to supply cannabis and cocaine in relation to a separate incident in Tower Hamlets, London.

Judge Martyn Levett said the “highly organised” operation had offered drugs to users “24 hours a day, seven days a week over a four-month period”.

He said the syndicate was run like “a very well-oiled machine, which operated effectively in communities in two counties and two towns”.

Gosbell and Jadeja received prison sentences of two years and nine months, while Walpole was jailed for five years and three months.

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