TWO dealers who ran a taxi service-style business delivering drugs to Wellington, Stogursey and other communities across Somerset have been jailed.

Fatlind Boshnjaku, from Albania, directed couriers including illegal immigrant Ergys Aliaj, to hundreds of locations in Taunton, Yeovil, Wellington, Martock, and Stogursey.

In six months the men supplied cocaine and heroin to local users in deals totalling nearly £500,000 using used a so-called ‘postcode method’ to set up deals and arrange delivery to the different locations.

Boshnjaku was said to be the ringleader and Aliaj a courier in the network, which operated ‘like a taxi service’ across the county.

They were caught after police used surveillance and analysed thousands of telephone messages to bring them to justice.

Appearing in Taunton Crown Court last Friday, Boshnjaku was given an eight-year jail sentence and Aliaj received two years and four months for conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Prosecuting, Alistair Haggerty said police estimated from telephone evidence there were was 11,796 deals conducted by the gang between October, 2020, and March, 2021, collectively valued at £471,867.

Mr Haggerty said: “The system has been described as the postcode method. It operated like a taxi service.

“Customers would make contact by text messages with the dealer line number. The courier would then be given a location and instructions by the controller about where to conduct the deals.”

The gang tried to make it more difficult for police to link the courier, customers, and telephone line operators by using two telephones.

However, police were able to track the movement of the telephones belonging to the defendants and locations across Somerset and London.

Mr Haggerty said Boshnjaku controlled the lines, often from London, and took orders from customers and directed at least four couriers, including Aliaj, and organised accommodation and vehicles for them.

The drug line would use marketing ploys like 24/7 service and better deals for those who introduced a friend.

Police also saw members of the gang conducting drugs deals in various locations, including Stogursey, Kershaw Close in Taunton, and the Asda car park in Wellington.

The pair were arrested on March 31 in possession of drugs and cash.

Police said the conspiracy involved nearly six kilogrammes of drugs and dozens of deals a day would be conducted by the couriers at hundreds of locations.

David Hughes, defending, said Boshnjaku had come to the UK from his native Albania as a 15-year-old to escape violence.

Boshnjaku had arrived in a van and had been taken into care by Kensington and Chelsea social services, in London.

Mr Hughes said he was ‘effectively abandoned’ when he reached 21 years of age and ‘let down by social services’ with no address or job, and gravitated to the Albanian community and illegal work.

Boshnjaku was also sentenced for eight driving offences and providing a false passport ID to police when he was arrested in Bridgwater.

Alan Walker, defending Aliaj, said he was only 17 years old at the time of the offences. He had entered the country illegally after escaping gang violence and would be deported if he was jailed.

Aliaj had worked in car washes and as a labourer and wants to live a lawful life.

Jailing the two men, Judge Paul Cook said both had been dealing in the misery of others and the conspiracy had been a sophisticated one.