12yrs for drug dealer

September 7, 2012, 5:22 pm

The sentencing today of a man who has been jailed for 12 years rounds off one of the most successful operations to combat drug dealing Middleton has ever seen.

Nick Lopuszanski (born 06/04/1964) of Venture Scout Way, Manchester, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs, possession of class A drugs with intent to supply and possession of firearms and ammunition, and was sentenced at Bolton Crown Court.

Twenty-seven other people have previously been sentenced, with jail terms totalling coming to 84 years.

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The crackdown, dubbed Operation Frond, has also recovered more than £20,000 in cash, and taken drugs worth more than £20,000 off the streets.

Operation Frond was an intelligence-led operation, set up in 2010, to target drug dealers in Middleton.

Manchester-based Lopuszanski was at the heart of the conspiracy the operation was trying to combat. Intelligence gathered by officers suggested there were three teams of drug dealers who were in competition, and that all three were in contact with Lopuszanski.

On 9 December 2010, a warrant was executed at an address linked to Lopuszanski on Bowmead Walk in Cheetham Hill.

Inside they recovered almost £8,500 in cash and cocaine with a street value of about £16,000. They also found firearms including a sawn off shotgun, a self-loading pistol, and ammunition for both.

The raid came during two days of action led by the Rochdale division of Greater Manchester Police, where 30 addresses were searched, and the 27 involved were arrested.

Detective Sergeant Jared Sudworth said: “Today’s result marks the culmination of this long inquiry, and our efforts have, without doubt, significantly disrupted the supply of drugs in Middleton.

“Operation Frond was an intelligence led operation to target drug dealers and try and bring down all of the associated crimes that their activities lead to, including burglary.

“We needed to identify dealers in Middleton and Manchester, and to do so we needed to carry out sophisticated telephone analysis to identify a hierarchy as well as to recover drugs, cash and firearms.”

When passing sentence HH Judge William Morris said: “This is the last sentence for Operation Frond, and a series of other investigations done by the same drugs unit, whose work has been outstanding.”