Brighton drugs factory pair jailed

Two men have been jailed for running a drugs factory in Saltdean.

Self-employed Paul Bulford, 44, of Bannings Vale, and disc jockey Gavin McCall, 44, of Abinger Road, Woodingdean, were sentenced at Brighton Crown Court.

Sussex Police arrested the pair at a house in Bannings Vale, Saltdean, where they found a stash of drugs, cutting agents and pill-making equipment.

Officers seized 2kg of ketamine, 55g of high-purity cocaine, 1,269 diazepam tablets, enough MDMA in tablets and powder form to make 6,663 ecstasy pills.

They also found more than £32,000 and a pill-making machine which turns the powder into tablets with a logo imprint.

They found almost £9,000 at McCall’s address.

Paul Bulford and Gavin McCall

Detectives also found more than 2kg of ketamine and more than 5kg of cutting agents – benzocaine and boric acid – in a vehicle in Saltdean which was linked to Bulford. Boric acid is commonly used as an insecticide to kill cockroaches.

Sussex Police said that the total estimated potential street value of the recovered drugs was £63,600.

Bulford admitted making MDMA, having cocaine with intent to supply, having ketamine and diazepam and money laundering.

On Friday (8 March) he was jailed for nine years in total – eight years for making MDMA and a year for having cocaine to run consecutively.

He was given a one-year sentence for each of the other two offences to run concurrently – or alongside – his other sentences.

A week earlier he denied having diazepam with intent to supply and a second money laundering charge. Both not guilty pleas were accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service.

McCall was jailed for eight years after he admitted producing MDMA.

His pleas of not guilty to having cocaine, diazepam and ketamine – all with intent to supply – and two counts of money laundering had previously been accepted by the prosecution.

A third defendant, Kerry Worms, 39, of Bannings Vale, admitted allowing premises to be used for the production of MDMA.

She was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for two years and to 200 hours of unpaid work.

The prosecution accepted her pleas of not guilty to making MDMA and to having drugs – cocaine and ketamine – with intent to supply.

A confiscation hearing is likely to take place to strip the trio of any profit that they may have made as a result of the offences.

Detective Inspector Till Sanderson said: “We continue to actively target those involved in the drugs trade, particularly those profiting from it.

“We will now be seeking a court order under the Proceeds of Crime Act to confiscate the criminal proceeds and profits of Bulford and McCall.

“We also remind people tempted to buy illicit powders and pills that these substances are not subject to any form of quality control and are mixed with all manner of adulterants, some of which can have serious adverse or even fatal side effects.

“Taking them is tantamount to trusting a person you don’t know to gamble with your health.”