Police seized cocaine worth £360,000 during a bust in Watford that led to a man being jailed for nine years.

Hertfordshire Constabulary’s specialist organised crime team executed a warrant in Southwold Road in June 2022 and found 5kg of the class A drug.

Spencer Clarke, 51, of Kirpal Road in Portsmouth, is thought to have brought the drugs hidden in a secret compartment under the boot of a vehicle he owned.

He appeared for sentencing at St Albans Crown Court on Thursday, January 4, having been found unanimously guilty by the jury. He was jailed for nine years, minus 154 days spent on curfew whilst on bail, for conspiracy to supply class A drugs (cocaine).   

Tyler McConnon, 28, of Southwold Road, Watford, who was part of the drug supply network and was captured on CCTV walking away from Clarke’s vehicle with the drugs, was previously sentenced to seven years and six months.

McConnon was part of a gang who ran a commercial cocaine supply network in the Watford and Three Rivers areas, who were jailed for a total of more than 28 years in November.

Detective Inspector Grant Finnie, from Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Operation Relentless team, said: “Clarke was part of a drug supply network which blighted the Watford and Three Rivers areas for many years.

“Successfully dismantling such a significant network will have a big impact on drug use and associated crime within the county.

“This will also send a message to anyone involved in drug dealing, that Hertfordshire is a hostile environment for gangs and they will be pursued relentlessly.”

He added that organised crime groups use violence, supply drugs and commit a wide range of crimes – and Operation Relentless is Herts Police’s response to that “ongoing threat”.

“As part of this work, we depend on information from members of the public to help us crack down on drug-related crime," he added.

“Any information you can provide, no matter how small it may seem, could help us to identify and apprehend drug dealers.”

Information can be reported via Herts Police’s website or non-emergency number 101.

It can also be given anonymously via the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.