THE final four members of a drug dealing gang, who attempted to flood the streets of Harlow with cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine and cannabis, have been jailed for a collective total of more than 40 years.

The result comes following a lengthy investigation by the West Operation Raptor team which saw them seize in total nearly five kilos of cocaine worth £209,000, half a kilo of cannabis worth £3,000, 400 ecstasy tablets worth £8,000 and ketamine worth £1,400.

During their investigation the officers also seized more than £40,000 in cash and carried out nine warrants.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard how the organised crime group was run by 29-year-old Khalifa Elgazzar and 28-year-old Nicholas Glynn.

The pair were orchestrating the sale of the Class A and B drugs using a number of runners to deal for them.

The gang came to the attention of Operation Raptor in August 2019 when they arrested 28-year-old Aaron Francis-Jackson after watching him carrying out a suspected drug deal. Francis-Jackson of The Hoo, Harlow was arrested and, after a search of both him and his home, he was found with more than £31,000 of drugs and subsequently jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Believing Francis-Jackson was acting on the orders of others, Operation Raptor launched an investigation.

Months later, in December 2018, their investigation led them to raid the home of 49-year-old Craig Willis in Woodcroft, Harlow. He was also found to have drugs worth more than £30,000 and he too was subsequently jailed for four years.

Following months of investigations to establish who was behind the drug dealing gang in June 2019, Operation Raptor raided eight properties across Harlow and North Weald.

During those raids they arrested key members of the gang and seized a further £150,000 worth of drugs including three kilos of cocaine, two of which were in imported kilo bricks, hundreds of small wraps of the Class A drug cocaine, cannabis, MDMA and ketamine. Officers also seized £21,000 in cash and £50,000 in high end assets.

Five further men were charged, tried at Chelmsford Crown Court, found guilty and jailed for more than 40 years. They are:

Gang leaders Khalifa Elgazzar and Nicholas Glynn both of Mark Hall Moors, Harlow. Both were found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and two counts of conspiracy to supply Class B drugs and they were both sentenced to 10 years;

Alan Lupton, 43 of Watersmeet, Harlow who was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and was jailed for seven years;

Sean Blomiley, 47, of Woodwards, Harlow who was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and two counts of conspiracy to supply Class B drugs and was jailed for six years;

The fifth man, 38-year-old Troy Smith of Long Ley, Harlow was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and two counts of conspiracy to supply Class B drugs. He is on bail and will return to the court for sentence next month.

Following the sentencing Det Sgt James Paget of the West Operation Raptor team said: “It was clear from the amount of Class A and B drugs seized that Elgazzar and Glynn were running a sophisticated organised crime gang over a long period of time with several ‘runners’ under their employ.

“Their intention was to flood the streets of Harlow and surrounding areas with a potent mix of Class A and B drugs whilst lining their own pockets. Unfortunately for them Operation Raptor put paid to their criminal enterprise.”

Det Insp James Freeman of West Operation Raptor added: “I hope the community are reassured that our officers went above and beyond both to take harmful and powerful drugs off our streets and lock up those responsible for supplying them.

“Every day our Raptor teams are on the streets of this county protecting and serving you, our residents, and whether we can arrest and charge a drug dealer on the spot or carry out a complex lengthy investigations, then we will do what is needed to stop these people causing harm in our communities.”

Essex Police set up Operation Raptor teams in the North, South and West of the county to tackle drug and gang-related crime.
If you have information about drug or gang-related crime in your community contact Essex Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111