THE head of an organised crime group which smuggled drugs and cash between Ibiza and Wales has been jailed.

Nicholas Strange, 34, who used to live on the Spanish island, sourced cocaine sold by his father Neil and his associate Martyn Pagett from a travellers site in Nantyglo, Blaenau Gwent.

Nicholas Strange, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to 10 years in prison at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to two counts of supplying class A drugs and one of laundering cash.

Nicholas Strange was arrested in May 2016 by Spanish police and repatriated to the UK.

National Crime Agency officers had discovered Strange’s role after arresting his father and Pagett in Bristol in 2014, an operation which saw them recover £125,000 in cash.

Officers also found eight kilograms of high purity cocaine, with a potential street value of £960,000, in Pagett’s portacabin at the Cwm Crachen travellers site where he was employed as the site warden.

The NCA then began the two-year search that culminated in Nicholas Strange’s arrest by Spanish police and his placement on remand at HMP Cardiff in June last year.

The NCA said that Strange’s group had been supplying other UK groups with drugs.

Mr Lewis, lead officer for the NCA, said: “Nicholas Strange was a crook who stayed in sunny Ibiza and kept his hands clean while his dad did the dirty work.

“Taking out his operation led to the imprisonment of several serious and organised criminals and the disruption of their networks.

“It also denied the criminal economy a lot of cash.

“We were determined to track Strange down and, thanks to our intelligence capabilities and close ties with the Guardia Civil, he is facing the full weight of justice.”

Devon man Neil Strange is serving an eight and a half years sentence for helping his son to smuggle the cash back to Ibiza.

Pagett, from Blaina, is serving an eight-year sentence for handling sales of the cocaine to crime groups across the UK.