Three men from Luton and Cranfield jailed for £8m drugs conspiracy

Three Bedfordshire men have been put behind bars for their part in an £8million drugs conspiracy.

The trio were jailed for a total of more than 36 years for their role in a drugs network involving a total of 200 kilos of cocaine.

Mohammed Shaukat and Ashley Cain, both from Luton, and Shane Dann, from Cranfield, were all part of an organised crime group (OCG) which supplied drugs across the country. All three admitted conspiring to supply Class A drugs.

Dann, 31, of Brocklehanger Edge, Cranfield was sentenced to 15 years while Shaukat, 38, of Bloomfield Avenue, Luton was locked up for 13 years and five months.

Cain, 32, of Petunia Court, Luton, was sentenced to seven years and six months for his role as a courier, collecting and delivering Class A drugs up and down the country after detectives discovered was a key individual in the OCG – and believe he was carrying out the “dirty work” for his co-conspirators Shaukat and Dann.

Operation Costello Lead Manager Linda Carson from Bedfordshire Police said: “The saying bad things come in threes comes to mind in this case which is another positive result for our dedicated Op Costello team who work tirelessly to combat high-level criminality.

“These sentencings mean we’ve reached over 200 years of jail time in these cases which shows our commitment to relentlessly pursuing and dismantling those dealers who bring such misery to our communities.”

Detective Superintendent Nick Skipworth, who is leading Operation Costello, said: “We seek to take out the key players involved in drugs supply and its associated violence locally, which we know will have a huge impact in terms of protecting vulnerable people, as well as our communities more widely, from violence and exploitation.”

Anyone with information about drug dealing or wider organised crime activity can report it via Beds Police’s online reporting tool or by calling 101.

All of these reports are fed into police intelligence and can help detectives build up a picture of organised crime, even if police do not act on the information straight away.

You can also report information anonymously via Crimestoppers on its website or by calling 0800 555 111.