Nigel Greening was sentenced to six years in prison for possessing cocaine with intent to supply
Six people were jailed
yesterday for their parts in a
plot to flood the streets of
Brighton and Hove with
cocaine worth £5 million.
They belonged to a network of
16 smugglers and dealers run by
Lorenzo Sirignano who headed
one the biggest drugs rings in
Sussex to date.
Sirignano, 51, was jailed for 24
years on Wednesday for trying to
smuggle high purity cocaine
from Brazil and Ghana. At the
same time nine other members
of the ring were sentenced to a
total of 100 years for their roles
in the operation.
Drugs smuggler Darren
Waterman, 43, was yesterday
given five years for transferring
£46,000 of Sirignano's cash to
Brazil to buy drugs.
Waterman, of Albert Road,
Brighton, will serve the term
alongside the five-and-a-half
years he is already serving for
drugs smuggling.
He was caught at Waterloo
station after he got off a Eurostar
train from Paris in October, 2006,
with a kilo of cocaine destined
for Sirignano.
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Nigel Greening, 46, of Singleton
Road, Brighton, was given
six years for possessing cocaine
with intent to supply.
Undercover police saw him
pick up a £10,000 package of
cocaine from Sirignano's
"office" in Carlisle Road, Hove.
Greening was jailed for two
years in 1979 for smuggling
cannabis, Hove Crown Court
heard yesterday.
Derek McQuade, 43, of Ringmer
Road, Brighton, was caught
with cocaine worth £28,000 in
his car.
He was stopped in Newick
Road, Brighton, after he was
seen picking up the drugs from
Sirignano's base. McQuade was
jailed for four-and-half-years
after admitting possessing
cocaine with intent to supply.
Emmanuel Frimpong, 48, of
Brunswick Square, Hove, was
given three years for money
laundering.
He denied knowing the £10,000
Sirignano asked him to send to
Brazil was to pay for drugs.
Frimpong was found guilty after
a two-week trial at Hove Crown
Crown Court.
Addict Christopher Holmes,
44, of Vallance Gardens, Hove,
was jailed for two-and-a-half
years for supplying cocaine to a
man sent to him by Sirignano.
Christopher Wall, 36, of
Tilgate Close, Brighton, was
given two-and-a-half years for
conspiracy to smuìggle cocaine.
He was recruited to smuggle
the drug from Brazil but pulled
out.
Anthony Glass, QC, prosecuting,
said Wall told police he
rang customs officers and told
them what he had been asked
to do following threats to him
and his family. Judge Paul Tain
said: "He was the drugs mule who never was.
"He was prepared to become
involved in the conspiracy but
for reasons of self-preservation
elected not to."
Sirignano, of Ferndale Road,
Burgess Hill, and other members
of his gang were arrested on February
19 last year.
They were waiting in the car
park at Heathrow's Terminal
Four for couriers to arrive from
Ghana with cocaine worth £1.3
million. Undercover detectives
had bugged his cars and spent
months watching him as part of
Operation Nash.
Judge Paul Tain told
Sirignano: "The picture of you
is one of a powerful Mr Big of
the drugs world with links in
Brazil, Ghana, London and
locally. You distanced yourself
from the offences by getting
others to take the risks and do
your dirty work."
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