A caretaker at a prestigious public school near Radlett had tens of thousands of pounds worth of cocaine at his home, which was in the school’s grounds.
Justin Terry, 45, who was sentenced today (Wednesday, October 7) at St Albans Crown Court, was part of a drugs supply gang which moved drugs all over the country.
Two other gang members, one from Watford and the other from Hemel Hempstead, plead guilty alongside him.
At his home and in an outbuilding which was in the grounds of Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School in Elstree, police found a large quantity of the class A drug, a hydraulic press, a metal pressing plate, a mould, along with chemicals and cutting agents.
It was all used by Terry in his role in the gang to store cocaine and adulterate it, before pressing it into kilo blocks to make it go even further on the streets of the UK.
Today when he was sentenced for his role in the organised gang, Judge Philip Grey said: “Had a pupil sneaked into that outbuilding, the consequences could have been horrific.”
Terry’s address at the school, called The Lodge, was just one address used by the gang for the preparation of the drugs.
He appeared for sentence along with two other members of the gang and pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply cocaine between August 2019 and November 1 last year. He pleaded guilty to conspiring amphetamine between the same dates.
Martin Walsh, 54, of St Pancras House, Churchfields Road, Watford, admitted identical charges and Phillip Blackburne, 38, of Mimas Road, Hemel Hempstead, pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply cocaine and Ketamine.
Prosecutor Simon Wilshire told the court that it was in early August of last year that Hertfordshire Police, acting on intelligence, began an operation to target gang members and disrupt their supply network.
On October 31 last year, Walsh was seen by the police team to drive a van from Hertfordshire to Birkenhead.
There he was seen delivering packages to various people before checking into a Travel Lodge Hotel near Liverpool.
That evening, police raided his room and found two kilo blocks of pressed cocaine and £37,000 in cash hidden under bead. The van he had driven had a secret hide inside for the storage of drugs.
That same day, police raided Terry’s home in the grounds of the school where they found a large amount of cocaine, a hydraulic press and chemicals and cutting agents and mixed bowls along with amphetamine.
Blackburne, who was higher in the chain of command than Walsh and Terry, was arrested in February of this year.
Passing sentence, Judge Grey jailed Terry for eight years; Walsh was jailed for seven years and eight months and Blackburne was sentenced to 10 years and two months.
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