A convicted drug dealer masterminded a £30,000 cocaine deal from his Bovingdon prison cell.
Domenico Masciopinto was serving a 14-year sentence at the HMP Mount Jail, but still managed to arrange the drug deal from a smuggled mobile phone.
His two associates, Daniel Digiacomo, 27, and Jason West, 35, helped organise the delivery of the Class A drug to a supermarket car park in Bedford.
Digiacomo was arrested after police watched the drug deal being carried out. The officers recovered nearly a kilo of high quality cocaine and £29,435 in cash.
West was identified as the supplier of the Class A drug and was arrested four months later.
The three arrested all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and were sentenced at Luton Crown Court, on December 6.
Masciopinto was sentenced to a further seven years by Judge Lynn Tayton QC. Digiacomo was jailed for six years and West for six years and eight months.
Kelly Imlay, 30, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and was given a two year suspended sentence.
Kelly was the carrier who had met West twice on the day of the drug deal, September, 28, 2017. The meetings were organised to pick up both the drugs that were seized and the postcode of the drop off point.
Kelly had met Digiacomo in Lurke Street and handed over the drugs. Digiacomo was quickly detained by the officers, who were watching and a search was carried out.
A fifth defendant, Bobbie Keet, 25, Digiacomo’s partner, received a 12 month community order after she was found guilty at trial of money laundering offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Keet was found removing nearly £2,500 in cash and luxury items shortly after the recovery of the cocaine and initial arrests.
Masciopinto was shot in 2011 after a Bedfordshire police worker had falsely claimed him to be a police informant in a Facebook post. Within hours Masciopinto had been shot in the chest and wrist.
After the sentencing, detective inspector Justin Dipper, from Bedfordshire’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said: “The amount of cash and luxury items we have seized as part of this investigation shows the scale of this criminal operation. Drug dealing was funding these lavish lifestyles and it is right the courts have imposed such harsh sentences on those involved.”
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