Inside track on the cocaine dealers who sold death in Bristol

The Evening Post can finally untangle the web of unscrupulous dealers who have been peddling drugs and misery on Bristol's streets for years.

Millions of pounds have been made by highly organised, prolific criminals led by the Pearce family, who are now languishing in prison serving hefty sentences.

Until now, The Post has been unable to reveal the masterminds behind the South Bristol drug scene, due to court orders imposed to prevent juries being prejudiced when sitting on related trials.

Before Operation Malbec – which saw the conviction of Craig Rodel, James Waithe and co – operations carried out by Avon and Somerset police's drug-busting Atrium unit since 2007 had already resulted in 17 men and one woman being sentenced to almost a century in prison between them.

The ringmaster who orchestrated the peddling of class A drugs – even after he was put behind bars – was Justin Pearce from St George.

Operation Marin raids in May 2007 recovered 3.5kg of cocaine, three-quarters of a kilo of MDMA (ecstasy), industrial pill making equipment, cutting agents, heat sealing devices and other drugs paraphernalia.

A dozen packages were discovered which contained cocaine mixed with caffeine and an anaesthetic called lidocaine, with an estimated street value of £150,000-£200,000.

Also found was a Walther PPK – a gun famously favoured by James Bond – and three rounds of ammunition.

Large amounts of cocaine were also discovered at a house on The Quays, Cumberland Road and in East Dundry Road, Whitchurch.

The sophisticated gang, led by Pearce, had also set up a factory at an industrial unit in Keynsham and a search of a van there uncovered more drugs, a rifle, face masks, mixing bowls, respirators and gloves.

Pearce, 29, of Summerhill Road, was eventually locked up for a total of 20 years; his dad Philip, 57, of Airport Road, Knowle, sent sentenced to 11 years; while Ben Sherwood, 27, of Bethel Road, St George, was sentenced to nine.

Pearce's brother, Jamie Pearce, 27, of Acer Village, Hengrove; Martyn Talbot, 27, of David's Road, Hengrove; James Worgan, 26, of West Town Park, Brislington; and Adam Kane, 26, of Evercreech Road, Whitchurch; were sentenced to three years apiece.

Craig Roberts, 25, of Minehead Road, Knowle, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years and Lee Muscat, 25, also of Minehead, was fined £1,350 for his involvement.

On August 1, 2007, Pearce's pregnant girlfriend Leah Murphy was seen going to Machine Mart in Lawrence Hill – a company which specialises in industrial and garage equipment and hydraulic presses identical to the ones found by Atrium officers.

Murphy, 28, of Airport Road, Knowle, had ordered a 15-tonne press and collected it, giving the couple's address in The Towers, Bristol.

Cocaine that would be worth between £140,000 and £280,000 on the street was seized.

Under Operation Malsters, Murphy was jailed for seven years and a man called Julian Norman, 45, was locked up for five years.

With Justin Pearce behind bars, police could have been forgiven for thinking that would be the end of his criminality.

But he refused to let go of his prosperous empire, continuing to operate from prison using his mobile phone. Soon he had set up another high-value enterprise, co-ordinating the movement of large quantities of cocaine.

By February 2008, with police having busted the bases in Bristol, the "cutting" operation was moved to Devon. Pearce now had a set of new deputies and lieutenants – Aaron Cowie, Mark Herbert, Colin Edmonds, Matthew Hudd, Jason Brown, Stephen Meek and Neil Martin.

On February 28 last year, police stopped a BMW car on the M5 leaving Bristol with £500,000 of cocaine inside it. As a result of Operation Maiden, Cowie, 51, was jailed for eight years and Herbert, 28, locked up for five for their part in the conspiracy.

Meanwhile, Edmonds and Hudd, both 25 and from Springleaze, Knowle, was sentenced to four years and four years, three months respectively.

And last month, while James Waithe and Robert Brooks were on trial in another courtroom, Brown, Meek and Martin learned their fate.

Meek, 32, of Cadbury Gardens, Cadbury Heath, was essentially a courier who transported money used to buy large quantities of cocaine. Pearce would arrange for his "banker" to release money, which Meek and an accomplice would take to a drug buyer further down the chain. Meek admitted making four trips for £500 a time and was jailed for four years.

Cash-strapped Brown's involvement was that he allowed £34,000 in £1,000 cash bundles to be kept at his home in Grove Leaze, Shirehampton.

The 32-year-old was paid to look after the drug money and was sentenced to three years for money laundering. Martin, 42, of Harewood Road, Speedwell, also admitted money laundering and was jailed for a year, having allowed cash to be kept in his kitchen for two hours. He was incriminated when his stepson took a mobile phone picture of the bundles of cash.

Judge David Ticehurst said: "Those who deal with the financial side of drug dealing are as vital as those who actually deal in drugs and sell them."

Around the time Cowie and co were caught, police raided 23 High Street, Weston-super-Mare, the home of Robert Brooks. A 10-tonne press was found, plus heroin, cocaine and ketamine. Atrium officers seized £25,900, as well as a stun-gun at a house in Wyndham Crescent, Broomhill, where there was also a notebook listing what was needed to set up a drugs trafficking and supply business.

Foster carer and football coach Brooks, 63, had fled from Manchester to Weston when his son fell foul of a crime network and had his leg broken. In 2008, he was jailed for four-and-a-half years for these offences, before his links to Rodel and co were revealed and he ended up standing trial with Waithe in the Malbec case, which finished yesterday.

For police, now comes the painstaking task of trying to recover the vast sums of money made by the criminals. In-roads have been made and £13,353.23 confiscated from some of those already locked up, but the true amount of money made by the dealers is unlikely to ever be realised.

During the operations, police seized:

More than £95,000 in cash.

11.2kg of cocaine, 738g of MDMA (ecstasy) and 303.52g of heroin.

More than 200kg of cutting agent.

One pistol, two air pistols, four rifles, one small bore shotgun, five handguns and ammunition.

Three military issue stun grenades.

A ballistic vest.

Industrial presses.

Two tablet making-machines.