A DRUG smuggling gang who used a fleet of vans with hidden compartments to transport millions of pounds worth of cocaine around the country have been jailed.

West Midlands Police seized 400kg of the drug as well as £1.6m in cash as investigators dismantled the wholesale supply chain, which saw the 10-strong gang ferrying the drugs in pallets of raw chicken.

Officers arrested two of the men, Maninder Dosanjh and Amandeep Rishi, and seized over 150kg of cocaine, hidden in frozen chicken produce, when officers in Birmingham stopped the van they were in coming back from docks in Essex.

Others in the gang, were arrested after Mohammed Usman collected wheels and tyres in the West Midlands before driving to London where they were passed to Sayed Hasheman in a residential street. When the tyres were cut open they were found to contain just short of £500,000 in cash.

Just over £1 million cash was recovered from a concealed compartment of an air compressor in another of the gang's vans which was stopped by officers on another occasion.

Within a 10-day period in July 2020 the 10 men, who lived in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Walsall, South Staffordshire and London, were arrested.

They pleaded guilty to the offences between 30, March 2020 and 13, August 2020, and on Wednesday (August 20) they were sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court to a combined total of more than 80 years.

Detective Chief Inspector Pete Cooke, from West Midlands ROCU, said: "This far-reaching investigation covered the importation, exportation and wholesale national supply of cocaine and money laundering.

"We were able to expose the gangs' activities which were both sophisticated and on a commercial scale, with them using a network of highly trusted individuals and a fleet of vehicles with hidden compartments.

"We believe they were responsible for importing hundreds of kilos of cocaine, estimated to be over a tonne resulting in them making huge sums of cash, thought to be over £10m.

"But all this enterprise was illegal and was putting large quantities of drugs, which we know destroy many lives and blight many communities, on to streets both here in the UK and overseas.

"Our teams were able to trace the activity, identify the criminals and ultimately put them behind bars with considerable jail terms."

For conspiracy to supply class A drugs, money laundering and conspiracy to fraudulently evade the prohibition on the exportation of Class A drugs, Maninder Dosanjh, 39, of Bramwell Drive, Cheslyn Hay, Staffordshire was jailed for 16 years 8 months, Amandeep Rishi, 42, of Alexander Gardens, Perry Barr, Birmingham was jailed for 11 years and two months, Mohammad Usman, 29, of Birch Street, Oldbury was sentenced to nine years and eight months, Rizwan Ali, 34, of Basons Lane, Sandwell was jailed for nine years and six months and Kamran Hussain, 34, of High Street, Harborne, Birmingham was jailed for nine years and two months.

For conspiracy to supply Class A Drugs and money laundering, Peter Masih, 44, of Laurel Lane, Halesowen was jailed for eight years, Mandeep Singh, 42, of Bhylls Lane, Wolverhampton was jailed for seven years and two months, Mithab Hussain, 31, of Sedgeley Road East, Sandwell was sentenced to seven years and two months.

For money laundering, Ashtiaq Ahmed, 45, of Hawes Road, Walsall was sentenced to two years and seven months, Sayeed Hashemyan, 38, of Fernhead Road, Maida Vale, London was sentenced to two years and three months.