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Crime networks closed down by two-year NCA and police investigation

The head of an organised crime group responsible for sourcing drugs for criminal networks across the UK has been handed a seven year prison sentence.

Neal Guttridge, 30, of Gower Walk in Hartlepool, was the link between a number of criminal networks in the north of England, the Netherlands and Spain.

The investigation into the crime groups operating around Guttridge involved the National Crime Agency, Cleveland Police, Merseyside Police and law enforcement agencies across Europe.

They began watching him in 2012 and gathered evidence of his meetings with crime groups, including that of notorious Merseyside drug trafficker Ian Stanton. Stanton would later be named as one of the NCA’s most wanted men and be jailed for 12 years.In 2013 Guttridge travelled frequently to Spain, where he was put under surveillance by the Spanish authorities and met known or suspected criminals involved in the drugs trade.

Guttridge was stopped and searched after travelling by train from Hartlepool to Manchester Piccadilly rail station in November 2013. He was found to be in possession of £40,000 cash which was contaminated with cocaine, heroin and cannabis.

Guttridge was later charged and admitted conspiring to supply class A drugs and money laundering.

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Channel website: http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/

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