DRUGS ring leaders who claimed benefits while they made a living by dealing heroin and crack cocaine have been sent to jail more for nearly 30 years.

Kevin Tynan, and his second-in-command Kirk Blake, established a network between Liverpool and Brighton, roping lovers, friends and family in to do their dirty work so they could make a profit, Hove Crown Court heard. 

The pair, who were neighbours in Ermine Street, Liverpool, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs, and stood before Judge David Rennie yesterday, flanked by four court guards, to hear their fate.

Tynan, 36, was sent to jail for 14 years, and 25-year-old Blake will be imprisoned for 13 years after they operated the “Jish” network between Liverpool and Brighton, dishing out drugs through a circle of runners to users and moving money through the bank accounts of a handful of vulnerable youngsters and family members. 

Tynan paid in cash for stays at the Umi Hotel, in King's Road, and Jury's Inn, in Stroudley Road, and police never saw him work during the entirety of their surveillance operation. He fled police but was caught when discovered hiding in bushes near Moulsecoomb Station and had been involved with drugs from an early age, with a cluster of previous convictions, the court heard. 

In previous court appearances he seemed at ease in the dock. Yesterday he was subdued as he accepted his punishment but Blake was heard muttering expletives as he was led away to the cells. 

Prosecuting, Mary Walford said the pair were clearly at the top of the chain. Defending Timothy Thomas said Tynan often visited his teenage son and was a tiler by trade, but said he reverted to the life he knew when he fell on hard times. Brendan Carville, defending Blake, said he “deeply” regretted involving the mother of his child in his affairs. 

Tyan will be the subject of a Serious Crime Prevention Order for five years when he leaves prison. He will have to justify his movements to police, which Detective Sergeant Julian Deans, of the Organised Crime Investigation Team, said was a “landmark” decision in cracking down on persistent criminals.

He said: “He will have to tell us when he is hiring a car and why, about the phones he uses and he can only carry limited cash or he will be brought before the court again.”

The wider police investigation

Tynan and Blake join Gordon Lecheminant, 45, of Stonery Road, Brighton who was sentenced to five years and four months in prison for possession with intent to supply the drugs. His neighbour Nicole Boarer, 45, was handed a four year and four month prison sentence earlier this year. 

Last month John Dykes, 20, of Goodwood Street, Liverpool, was jailed for four years, Shawn Dempsey, 21, of Queens Mews, Liverpool, was handed a four and a half year sentence. The main criminal connection between the two cities Tyler Boarer, 22, of Downland Court in Portslade, the son of Nicole Boarer, was sent to prison for eight years for conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and for biting a police officer when resisting arrest. 

Michael Hancock, 21, of Whiterock Street, Liverpool, was handed a four month sentence suspended for two years for money laundering and an eight month suspended sentence for attempting to pervert the course of justice yesterday. The university graduate, who studied geography, had faked a letter from his sports club employer to claim the money was from tips legitimately earned. 

Blake's aunt Frances Hughes, 66, of Richard Kelly Drive, Liverpool, pleaded guilty to money laundering and was given a four month sentence suspended for two years. Despite requests from her defending counsel Rachel Oakdene to avoid a curfew due to “embarrassment”, Hughes will also have to be indoors between 10pm and 6am in line with other offenders involved in the network who were not sent to jail. 

The oldest drugs runner Murrell Kinch, 55, of Ryelands Drive, Brighton, was handed a two year sentence, suspended by two years, after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine. He will have to attend help sessions for six months and supervision sessions for two years and is also subject to a curfew. Seven others were handed suspended sentences for money laundering and drugs running offences. 

It brings the total number of convictions as part of Operation Woburn to 17 amounting to more than 50 years in prison. 

Detective Constable Mark Pinder said: “The large sentences go a long way in showing drugs will not be tolerated in Brighton and Hove. These criminals came back to a place they knew in order to reoffend and in doing so they have been caught.”