FOUR members of a Mid Wales drugs gang have been sentenced to more than 25 years in prison.

Patrick Stokes, John Power and Michael Power, all of Leighton Arches caravan park in Welshpool, and Josh Large, of Coven in Staffordshire, were the first of the group to appear at Mold Crown Court on Wednesday (April 24) morning after they were convicted of bringing hundreds of thousands of pound worth of heroin, cocaine and cannabis into Powys.

It follows a major drugs bust which saw up to 80 police officers raid Leighton Arches as part of a county lines drug operation in June 2021.

More than a dozen defendants are being sentenced by Judge Niclas Parry in three blocks over two days.

Ahead of the sentencing, Judge Parry told the court: "This police operation investigated the source of cocaine which was provided from an upstream group in the West Midlands which returned to money.

"It always returned to the same location, Leighton Arches caravan site in Welshpool and the clients would send out flare messages to their customer base.

"There was one key distributor operating from Knighton who would use key associates who drove him around so this rural Wales could be flooded with Class A drugs.

"This part of Mid Wales is seriously affected by Class A drugs, leading to cases that cause misery to families and the community at large, causing criminality affecting homeowners and businesses

"This criminality is caused by dependency.

"The enterprise was relatively small and had four identifiable people.

"All delivery was to the same place and the amount of cocaine distributed to his area of Mid Wales was around 3.5kg with a street value of £330-400k.

"The OCG (organised crime gang) was also concerned in the supply of cannabis with street value of up to £1.5m and I have formed the view that this estimate figure can be justified.

"But the court is reminded that there is no certainly and caution must be exercised on that total."

Stokes was sentenced to eight years and nine months for conspiracy to supply cocaine with no separate penalty for a second charge of cannabis; John Power was sentenced to seven years and six months for conspiracy to supply cocaine with no separate penalty for cannabis; and Michael Power was sentenced to four years and six months for conspiracy to supply cocaine with no separate penalty for supplying cannabis.

Meanwhile, Josh Large was sentenced to four years and 10 months for his role as a courier between the two groups.

This afternoon Kuldeep Sahota and Gavin Warley, of Wolverhampton, and Martin Gallagher, of Leighton Arches in Welshpool, are listed for sentencing.

Still to be sentenced are Kane Glyn Bastable, of Wolverhampton; Sheldon Terrence Kay, of Knighton; Daniel Seyffert, of Presteigne; Lee Husbands, of Knighton; Kristian Rigby, of Knighton; and Lucy Lloyd, of Heyope, near Knighton are due to be sentenced.