THREE people have been jailed for a total of 12 years after using a fake clothing brand to operate an illegal drug network through Whatsapp.
It comes as a result of Thames Valley Police disrupting the “sophisticated” network operating through a fake business on the messaging app.
In June last year, the operation was discovered operating behind a fake clothing brand which was used to take payments for a host of class A, B and C drugs.
The drugs would be ordered online, packaged and distributed using delivery drivers, the postal network, and a variety of coded drop boxes at locations around Berkshire.
The drugs enterprise used multiple container storage units across Reading and Wokingham and Farnborough to hold and package different drugs.
The network was owned and controlled by Erik Gasparovsky who had a number of people, including Judit Zaid and Istvan Teczely, helping him package and deliver the drugs.
officers arrested Gasparovsky at his home address on Oxford Road, Reading, and searched his house and cars, seizing several branded clothes plus phones and paraphernalia linking him to ‘Vicstore’ and the other suspects.
On the same day, officers arrested Zaid was arrested at a storage unit in Reading loading items into her car.
This included a safe containing approximately £2,000 in cash plus ketamine, MDMA, methyl-amphetamine, MMC, cocaine, GBL, cannabis and cannabis resin.
The total wholesale value of the seized substances was around £14,835.
Meanwhile Hampshire and Isle of Wight police arrested Teczely in Hampshire, with a tick list and a phone connecting him to the Vicstore drugs network in his possession.
Police also executed warrants on storage containers in Farnborough and Wokingham, seizing further drugs including MDMA, methyl-amphetamine, amphetamine, ketamine, MMC, cocaine, and cannabis, with approximate street values of £4,415 and £9,080 respectively.
Forensic and CCTV enquiries linked the three defendants to the storage units over a number of weeks prior to their arrest.
Gasparovsky, aged 31, of Oxford Road, Tilehurst, Teczely, aged 42, of no fixed abode, and Zaid, aged 38, of Gloucester Road, Feltham, London, were all charged on the evening of their arrest.
At Reading Crown Court on 16 April, Gasparovsky was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison, Teczely was jailed for three years and Zaid for two years and four months, totalling 12 years and eight months.
The judge also ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the illegal drugs and mobile phones. A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing is also pending.
At the same court the trio pleaded guilty to two counts of being concerned in supply of a controlled drug of class A, namely cocaine, ecstasy, methylamphetamine, and three counts of being concerned in supply of a controlled drug of class B, namely cannabis, ketamine and Mephedrone on October 24 last year.
Gasparovsky also pleaded guilty to acquiring criminal property.
Investigating officer PC Tom Kennedy, of the Proactive team, based at Reading police station, said: “A large amount of officers and staff have worked together to disrupt this illegal drugs network and bring these dealers to justice
“The sentences given to these three offenders reflects the seriousness of the consequences in supplying illegal drugs.
“We will continue to target and prosecute offenders involved in the supply of drugs as it brings misery to our communities and exploits vulnerable people.”
