A convicted drug dealer from Marple is back behind bars after supplying high-grade cocaine to a gang that flaunted its wealth with a fleet of supercars.

Anthony Carter, of Briarwood Crescent, was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and sentenced to nine years and nine months last Friday (May 29).

Carter, who turns 52 on Wednesday (3 June), was a key contact for the Rochdale-based network, sourcing huge quantities of the drug worth millions of pounds.

He returns to prison after a previous nine-year sentence for drug trafficking handed down in 2013.

"This group was a highly sophisticated outfit - they were a network with many layers where everyone played their part," said Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Detective Inspector Rick Castley. "From the couriers to purchasers, to laundering cash under what seemed to be, legitimate businesses.

"The individuals involved operated across borders, using sophisticated methods to conceal their activities and avoid detection."

Other members of the organisation were hit with sentences totalling 37 years.

Its ringleader Umar Vakas, 30, from Oldham was jailed for 11 years for conspiracy to supply Class A and Class B drugs in England and Class B drugs in Scotland. GMP described him as a 'central figure in the drug supply operation', buying wholesale amounts of cocaine, ketamine and cannabis.

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Carter along with members of the drug gang (Image - GMP)

Waqas Mustafa, 33, from Rotherham was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A and Class B drugs and jailed for nine years and eight months.

Rochdale-based Talha Nasim, 33, will spend two years and four months in prison for conspiracy to supply Class B drugs.

Three other Rochdale men were sentenced for laundering offences. Bilal Irshad, 33, Mohamed Kayani, 33, and 35-year-old Sajjad Anwar were sentenced for between three years and six years and eight months after 'cleaning' between £500,000 and £2 million.

Irshad was arrested at an office in Salford that contained almost £100,000 in cash, while Kayani's was found in possession of £115,000 stuffed into a carrier bag when police stopped his car on the M62 in February last year.

The 18-month-long investigation tracked the gang as they travelled through France, Switzerland, Monaco and Italy in high-powered Lamborghinis, Mercedes and Audis.

DI Castley warned that the force would root out drug dealers in the city region: "Through determination, collaboration, and intelligence-led policing, we have dismantled their network and prevented further harm that these drugs might have done to communities both here in Greater Manchester and across the United Kingdom.

"I would like to thank all officers and partner agencies involved hard work and dedication during the length of this investigation.

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"The sentences that have been handed out over the past two days sends a clear message: organised crime will not be tolerated, and those who seek to profit from it will be relentlessly pursued and brought to justice."

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