A man has been jailed for 24 years after being found guilty of being the mastermind behind a drugs gang that imported millions of pounds worth of cocaine into the UK.

Helios Nanaj, aged 37, and of Smugglers Way in Wandsworth, London, was found guilty of conspiring to supply controlled Class A drugs and conspiring to import cocaine following a trial at Gloucester Crown Court last week.

The court heard he was the ringleader of a gang that had brought 784 kilograms of drugs into the country for distribution across the UK.

He was caught after members of his gang were arrested by police in Gloucester in 2020.

The gang were using encrypted Encrochat phones to communicate – but the data was cracked by the National Crime Agency (NCA) working with International partners, meaning officers were able to read the messages and trace them back to Nanaj.

Further arrests of other members of the gang by the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit also assisted detectives in following the trail of evidence back to Nanaj.

The phones showed Nanaj boasting about the lavish lifestyle that the drugs had funded. They showed photographs of him wearing designer clothes, shoes, sunglasses and driving luxury cars.

Nanaj, who had come to Britain from Albania on the back of a lorry when he was a teenager, had also bragged that he had been dealing drugs for 20 years.

A complex investigation by Gloucestershire Constabulary's Serious and Organised Crime Unit resulted in him being charged with four counts of conspiracy to supply a controlled Class A drug and conspiracy to contravene S170 of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979.

Nanaj was found guilty on Thursday 7 December and jailed today (Thursday 14 December) for 24 years, of which he must serve at least 12 years before being released on licence.

Sentencing Nanaj, Judge Rupert Lowe told him: "Your role in this conspiracy was as the chief organising mind.

"Your hesitant and incoherent arguments that you were looking after these phones [for other people] were ludicrous and transparent lies which were exposed before the jury.

"You had no real mitigation other than that your family will suffer and that your behaviour in court and in prison has been good."

Judge Lowe also commended the officer in charge for putting together the case for the prosecution counsel to present to court.

Detective Inspector Matt Phillips, from the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said the case had been Gloucestershire Constabulary's biggest drugs prosecution, both in terms of the amount of drugs and the sentence Nanaj received.

He said: "This is an excellent result which shows that nothing will stop us from tackling the issue of drugs that can blight our communities.

“The determination and commitment shown by the Serious and Organised Crime Unit throughout the investigation demonstrates that we will work tirelessly to bring organised crime groups to justice.

"Whether you are at the bottom or top of the drug supply chain, Gloucestershire is a place where you are not welcome and anyone who attempts to supply drugs in the county can expect to face the full force of the law."