A HEREFORDSHIRE man has been jailed after an international drugs ring bust.

Two members of a prolific drugs ring which operated across the south west and Shropshire and imported drugs from Portugal have been jailed after a lengthy British Transport Police investigation.

Jordan McCourt-Knight, aged 30, of Roman Close, Leintwardine, Herefordshire, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs cocaine and MDMA and five counts of conspiracy to supply class B drugs ketamine and cannabis and was jailed for six years and three months.

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Harley Hall, 28, of Hope Bagot Lane, Knowbury, Shropshire, admitted two counts of conspiracy to supply a class A drugs cocaine and MDMA, three counts of conspiracy to supply class B drugs ketamine and cannabis and one count of possession with intent to supply cannabis. He was jailed for five years and 10 months.

A third man, Cassius Davies-Thompson, aged 28, of Walcot Street, Bath, was sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended for 18 months after pleading guilty to possession of a class A drug with intent to supply.

All three were sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court on November 8.

The investigation began in November 2019 when bungling criminal McCourt–Knight left a bag containing a hefty amount of ketamine worth between  £19,940 and £39,880 on a train at Newport station.

Despite running back to try to claim it, the train had already left the station and the bag was found by staff and reported it to police.

This sparked a police hunt for the owner, helped by the fact that McCourt-Knight had actually reported the bag missing to staff at Newport station.

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He was arrested and found to be carrying class A and class C drugs, £1,910 in cash, drug paraphernalia and a number of mobile phones.

One of the phones was found to be an ‘encro device’, while members of the organised crime group had used the ‘Encro-Chat’ app to discuss the sourcing, supply and receipt of drugs from Portugal.

McCourt-Knight’s costly mistake led to the unravelling of the entire drugs line with Harley Hall being identified through messages on the phone as another big player.

Hall was arrested and a search of his home resulted in thousands of pounds in cash and over 1kg of cannabis being seized.