A key player in a major smuggling network has been jailed for attempting to flood the lucrative Jersey drugs market with heroin and cannabis.
Alan Smitton ran two separate importation plots that sought to place control of the island's drugs supply lines in the hands of crime bosses based on Merseyside .
Both operations were busted when police raids uncovered illicit substances said to be worth more than £900,000 at properties on the island.
Search teams discovered almost 40kgs of cannabis resin - given a street value of £500,000 - and 405g of heroin, said to have been worth £405,000, when they targeted two homes and a garage in November 2017.
Smitton, who now lives in Jersey but is from Liverpool , was linked to both conspiracies and the 47-year-old was jailed for 17 years at Jersey's Royal Court.
Key figures in the gang network that supported his cannabis plot were also locked up on Thursday.
Among them were John O'Connor, David Arrowsmith and Neil Heskin.
O'Connor, originally from Wallasey , visited the tourist hotspot from his home on Merseyside to co-ordinate the storage and supply of drugs on the island.
The 61-year-old was jailed for seven years and six months.
Arrowsmith was based on the island and helped managed the plot on the ground.
Like Smitton, he is originally from Merseyside. The 57-year-old was jailed for four years and six months.
Heskin, who had a stint in jail between spells living in Wallasey and Kirkby , was responsible for making sure the profits of the cannabis scheme were returned to Merseyside.
The 39-year-old was locked up for seven years and six months.
The conspiracies were busted after a major surveillance operation by detectives who monitored gangland activity between September and November 2017.
Controlled from Merseyside, both plots were responsible for the importation of drugs to the island - where the street value of illicit substances can be double, sometimes triple those on the UK mainland.
It was this market notorious Toxteth drugs boss Curtis Warren was targeting when he was jailed on the island in 2009.
While members of the cannabis scheme stored and managed the supply of the Class B drug, figures such as Heskin made repeat visits to make sure the operation was running smoothly - and to collect the profits.
Heskin, once named on a Merseyside Police most wanted list, flew to the island in October and November 2017 and was tracked by police as he met gangland contacts.
Following the sentencing, the States of Jersey Police warned the island was anything but an easy target for criminals.
Acting Chief Inspector Craig Jackson said: "Illegal drugs have a devastating impact on society, with the most vulnerable often suffering disproportionately. The men sentenced today have repeatedly sought to profit from the misery of others.
"They have acted with a sense of impunity and shown little or no remorse for their actions.
“They considered Jersey to be a soft target - nothing could be further from the truth.”
