VIOLENT drug dealers who have been slammed behinds bars were “a danger to our community” as they dealt cocaine worth more than £100,000 in Colchester.

Jonathan Stephenson is a detective sergeant from Essex Police’s Op Orochi team, which helped to bring down the city’s so-called F&K drugs gang.

The group, captured following a number of police raids, supplied almost 1.5kg of cocaine over a 15 month period between April 2021 and July last year.

Following a court hearing at Ipswich Crown Court, the Colchester crooks, some of whom had also committed other crimes, were jailed for a total of 38 years.

Gazette:

Detective Sergeant Stephenson said: “These men were causing significant harm in Colchester, both through sale of drugs and through incidents of serious violence.

“There is no doubt this group was operating at a sophisticated level but our methods of disrupting organised crime gangs are more sophisticated - we can meet their challenge head on.”

The gang was named after Stephen Ford, 32, and Kian Rulten, 28, of Monkwick Avenue, Colchester, and Rulten, of Morant Road, Colchester, who admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine.

READ MORE: Drug dealers who sold £100,000 worth of cocaine in Colchester are jailed for 38 years

Luke Welham, 26, of Vince Close, Colchester, Jake Goodspeed, 25, of Monkwick Avenue, and Jack Tyrer, 24, of The Commons, Colchester, also admitted the same offence.

Ford also admitted possessing a flick knife and two truncheons and punching a man in the car park of the Leather Bottle pub, in Shrub End, Colchester, in September 2021.

Goodspeed, meanwhile, also admitted leaving a man with permanent scarring during the same incident when he smashed the victim with a glass bottle.

And Welham admitted possessing 6g of cocaine and a small amount of cannabis which was discovered after police searched his home.

Gazette: Rulten, an ex-scaffolder, admitted being involved in a violent incident in Hudson House, Head Street, Colchester, which left a man covered in his own blood.

“These men were a danger to our community,” added Det Sgt Stephenson.

“Through our work, we were able to prove the harm they were causing, show how they were running the network and who exactly was involved.

“This will cause significant disruption to their criminal network and this will undoubtedly prevent many more incidents of violence in Colchester.”