A PRISONER at HMP Hewell who used teenagers to run his drugs empire has been jailed for 10-and-a-half years.

From his prison cell Shaun Lau used established contacts to send up to £400,000 worth of heroin and cocaine into the Nottinghamshire market town of Newark and Skegness, on the Lincolnshire coast.

Lau and his organised crime group used a number of safe houses to store large amounts of money and adulterate the high purity drugs.

The illicit substances were then couriered to their intended target towns by members of the gang and supplied to local addicts.

Meanwhile, proceeds from the sale of the drugs were laundered through various bank accounts.

A six-month investigation by the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, led to the Nottingham-based gang's arrest.

Enquiries made by detectives between September 2016 and March 2017 connected the dots and, following searches of a number of addresses linked to the gang — including Lau’s prison cell — £76,000-worth of high purity cocaine and heroin, and more than £10,000 in cash was seized.

Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pearson said: “Shaun Lau was running a well-established criminal enterprise from his jail cell.

"Using his associates outside the prison walls he operated an extremely profitable supply of Class A drugs out of a semi-detached house in a quiet street in Nottinghamshire.

“But, as we have seen in other areas of the country, this group operated a County Lines model. They didn’t deal in their own back yards. They didn’t unleash these drugs on the neighbourhoods in which they lived, they used intimidation tactics to take control of other dealers’ ‘patches’ miles away from home.

"They then exploited vulnerable residents to set up camp there and embed a new supply network."

Lau, who served time in prison for previous drug conspiracy offences, was one of 14 sentenced for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

The 30-year-old was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison.