Four men who acted as drugs and money couriers to enable at least £3 million worth of cocaine to be supplied from London and the East Midlands to the South West have been sentenced to 37-and-a-half years in prison.

Eight other members of the organised crime group have already been sentenced to a total of 87 years for their roles in the major conspiracy following the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU) investigation. This makes the total custodial sentences handed down to the group 124 years. A further three members received suspended sentences.

Pavel Purkin, 34, from Bognor Regis; Mehmet Sanci, 37, from Swindon; Corneliu Preda, 37 from Saltford, Bath; and Garfield Prehay, 36 from Wembley, were all convicted of acting as drugs and money couriers to enable the conspiracy to operate. They would take a financial cut depending on the quantities they transported.

Over five deliveries, Purkin passed 55kg of cocaine worth nearly £2 million to Bath-based Romaine Hyman, who was jailed for 26 years in February 2022. Purkin has been sentenced to 15 years.

Sanci transported at least 5kg of cocaine and collected £418,000 in drug money from Hyman to take to London over two trips. He also supplied cocaine himself in Swindon. He was sentenced to nine years.

Footage released by SWROCU (below) shows Sanci meeting Hyman in Bath in April 2020 to collect three bags containing £348,540, which was the balance owed for 10 kilos of cocaine delivered by Purkin earlier the same month.

Preda was a regular driver for Hyman, on one occasion driving him to collect £540,000 cash from a stash house in Bath before meeting Purkin and collecting 7 kilos of cocaine. Four kilos were for Hyman, three for Sanci. Preda was sentenced to ten years.

London-based Prehay transported seven-kilo blocks of cocaine from London to Bath on 29 May, the day Hyman was arrested after stashing the drugs in a flat. Purkin was detained while waiting in his car outside, and Prehay less than an hour later on the M4 near Swindon as he headed back to London. Prehay was sentenced to three-and-a-half years.

DCI Adam Smith from the SWROCU said, “These four men were key to enabling the drugs conspiracy to operate, meaning huge amounts of class A drugs supplied on our streets and massive profits for them and the rest of the criminal group.

“This investigation has seen significant sentences totalling more than 120 years handed down, with many key players pleading guilty due to the strength of evidence we gathered against them.

“These were highly organised criminals causing massive harm in our communities, but the tireless work of our investigation team, working closely with colleagues in the CPS, secured their convictions and has ensured they’re brought to justice.”

The investigation was part of Operation Venetic, the UK law enforcement response to the takedown of encrypted communications platform EncroChat, which was used exclusively by criminals.