East Cambs man jailed for his role in supplying cocaine across region

Paul Wesley. (Image: Archant)

Cyrus Kazak, 49, of Woodpecker Way, Waterbeach, was arrested with a number of other people in a series of dawn raids in April 2012.

Sean Byrne. (Image: Archant)

The operation, codenamed Vanguard, involved more than 250 officers carrying out warrants under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Kazak, of Woodpecker Way, Waterbeach, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, supplying cocaine, possession of ecstasy (MDMA) with intent to supply, and possession of ecstasy (MDMA).

He was jailed for 12-and-a-half years by Judge Lynn Tayton at Leicester Crown Court on Thursday.

Judge Tayton said Kazak, who received nine year sentences to run concurrently with each other and with the main jail term, would have been jailed for 18 years but was given credit for an earlier guilty plea.

Also jailed was Paul Wesley, 38, of Fowlmere Road, Foxton, who stood trial at Leicester Crown Court in December and was convicted of conspiracy to supply cocaine between January 2010 and August 2012. He was jailed for 18 years.

Judge Tayton described Wesley as having a “principal and leading role” in the Cambridgeshire conspiracy.

Wesley and Kazak were part of an organised crime group supplying drugs both within and outside Cambridgeshire.

Kazak worked for Wesley and as part of their criminal business they supplied high purity (importation level) cocaine to a crime group operating in Northamptonshire led by Joseph O’Neill, who was also jailed.

Those in Northamptonshire would regularly send couriers to Cambridgeshire to deal drugs with Kazak. The Northamptonshire-based group would prepare the drugs to a lesser purity for onward supply to others including another criminal group operating from Hampshire.

This criminal business operated for more than two years and, during the police operation, significant quantities of cocaine were recovered.

Kazak would also supply high purity cocaine and MDMA within Cambridgeshire.

O’Neill, 36, from Burton Latimer,also stood trial with Wesley as did Sean Byrne, 48, from Northampton. They were both found guilty on the same charge.

O’Neill, who was described as the head of the conspiracy in Northamptonshire, was jailed for 20 years while Byrne, who was arrested in the car park of Tesco, at Bar Hill, in January 2012, was jailed for 15 years.

Another defendant, Adrian Dowling, 48, from Pitsford, Northamptonshire, was caught after receiving 1kg of cocaine from Kazak in Girton in November 2011. He admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and was jailed for six years.

In addition, a further 16 men and one woman have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Det Insp Craig Harrison, senior investigating officer, said: “This was a complex and challenging investigation addressing the criminal business of three independent organised crime groups.

“Those involved were organised and professional in conducting their criminal business, not only in terms of their ability to source and distribute high purity cocaine but also in the tactics they employed to avoid detection.

“Drug dealing is a scourge on society that fuels other serious crime including burglary, robbery and anti-social behaviour and we are committed to catching and putting before the courts those involved in it.”

Operation Vanguard involved the force’s Serious and Organised Crime Department, East Midlands Special Operations Unit – Serious and Organised Crime, Hampshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service.