A Rhayader man has been jailed after admitting being part of a gang that smuggled drugs into Powys.

Johann Neil Hughes, 45, was one of 21 people convicted of offences of supplying heroin and cocaine following a major police operation into ‘county lines’ drug gangs.

Police officers from Powys worked alongside Dyfed-Powys officers from the Serious and Organised Crime Team and National Crime Agency on Operation Regent which targeted county lines groups importing drugs.

Between August 2016 and June 2018, drug suppliers from Merseyside were travelling to Powys and setting up business with local drug dealers to sell heroin and crack cocaine, with the investigation finding that around £1.1m of the drugs had been couriered into Powys.

Twenty-one members of the gang, from across Powys and Merseyside, including Harris, have been sentenced to more than 100 years in prison in total, after 17 of them pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply drugs.

Five more members of the gang were convicted at trial, with one person, a youth from Macclesfield, still to be sentenced.

As part of their operations, the gang used the ‘cuckooing’ method of taking over properties, often the homes of vulnerable people, to use them to prepare and distribute the drugs.

While the trials and hearings of the Powys members and some of the Merseyside members were completed in July, a reporting restriction had been imposed to allow other trials in Merseyside to take place.

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