Jail for drug dealer who sold ‘Superman’ cocaine

A high-level drug-dealer who branded the cocaine he sold with a Superman logo has been jailed for eight years today (12 November) at the Old Bailey.

Ashley Wiltshire, 31, used the logo as his ‘trademark’, pressing it into kilo blocks of cocaine to reassure the dealers he sold to that he would testify to its purity.

The court heard that Wiltshire supplied cocaine to dealers across the south-east. The money he earned funded a lavish lifestyle of high-powered cars, designer goods and an apartment in a converted Manor House in Stapleford Tawney, Essex.

But that all came to a halt after City of London Police’s complex operation to apprehend him. The long term investigation targeted Wiltshire’s ‘runners’ – the men he used to handle the drugs – and the force arrested three in succession.

Officers also seized two presses used for compressing cocaine into the blocks sold to dealers, as well as six and a half kilos of the drug.

After the arrest of his third runner, Wiltshire handed himself into police. He pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Supply Class A drugs at the Central Criminal Court on 3 September 2010.

The three ‘runners’, Larry Hammersley, 44, of Millwall, London, Daniel Vann, 32, of Ongar, Essex and Jay Putinas, 25, Woodford Green, Essex all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. They were sentenced today: Hammersley to six years, Vann to four years and Putinas to four and a half years.

City of London Police’s Det Insp Dave Evans, who oversaw the investigation, said: “Ashley Wiltshire was a ruthless man who used other people to handle his drugs, but lived a life of luxury off the illicit profits. He may have branded himself as Superman, but as our investigation progressed, there was nothing heroic about him. By arresting his runners and seizing his drugs we took away his legs, and with it his luxury lifestyle.

“This was a complex investigation that relied on a wealth of expertise from right across the force. Wiltshire and his cohorts were involved in the supply of a drug that damages society and destroys lives. It was a long time in coming, but seeing them behind bars is a particularly satisfying end to the case”