JAILED: Nottinghamshire men involved in £1million illegal drugs operation

Two Nottinghamshire men who were involved in a large-scale operation to sell £1million of illegal drugs have been jailed.
James Straw and Tyrone Sly. Picture from Lincolnshire police.James Straw and Tyrone Sly. Picture from Lincolnshire police.
James Straw and Tyrone Sly. Picture from Lincolnshire police.

James Straw, 50, of Petersmith Drive, Ollerton, was locked up for 16 years while Tyrone Sly, 46, of Bye Path Road, Retford, was sentenced to ten years and six months behind bars.

They were part of a 13-strong gang involved in supplying cocaine, heroin, MCAT and amphetamine in the Grantham area and the south of Lincolnshire.

At Lincoln Crown Court on Monday, the gang members were sentenced to a total of 114 years in jail following a ten-month police operation.

Chief Inspector Mark Kirwan, of Grantham police, said: “Lincolnshire police have been working behind the scenes, responding to information provided by the community and others to remove this threat of organised drug supply.

“We have been working with partner agencies to ultimately conduct enforcement operations on this group which has been supplying illegal drugs into our communities.

“The community will be rid of these individuals for a significant amount of time and the scourge that they brought with them. Our community is already feeding back to us saying they all glad to get rid of these people and they feel reassured that the police have dealt with this issue head on. We cannot always explain what we are doing and how we do it but hopefully this end result will send a clear message that we will not tolerate organised illegal drug supply.”

Deputy Chief Constable Heather Roach said: “These sentences are extremely long and send out a very clear message to people who want to deal in drugs and traffic them in Lincolnshire and the East Midlands. That message is that we won’t tolerate this type of behaviour – and the sentences totalling 114 years are very significant and reflect that.

“As the judge in this case said, the officers involved spent many hours carrying out painstaking and diligent work and I echo his comments commending them. A lot of work goes on in the background and the sentences are a good result in putting to an end something that has been a blight on the community and is a culmination of working together across forces.”