Twenty-two members of a gang who ploughed more than £20m of high-purity illegal drugs around the country, spread their wings into March, a court heard.

The gang – caught after a prolonged police investigation -were jailed for more than 200 years.

A court heard that the gang had spread their reach into town towns and cities across the country, “including Leeds, London, Middlesbrough and March in Cambridgeshire, as well as up to Edinburgh”.

The huge national network was unravelled after Nottinghamshire Police recovered 111kg of amphetamine in a raid at a house in Radford in October 2017.

That led detectives to unearth links to the major conspiracy; the drugs involved in the plot could have been sold for up to £60m on the street.

Following a lengthy investigation, major enforcement followed across eight counties in two days in February 2019 which brought the illicit operation to an abrupt end.

It found the operation was being coordinated out of Leicestershire, with main stash sites and supply routes in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the West Midlands.

At Leicester Crown Court last week 11 people were sentenced for their involvement.

They follow 11 others, who were sentenced previously, but can only be reported on now following the lifting of restrictions.

Detective Inspector Nick Hall, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: "This was a huge case as it led to a major drugs conspiracy being unearthed, with the gang bringing a tonne of dangerous drugs into the UK.

"They would have benefitted by tens of millions of pounds from the enterprise with no thought to the incredible damage the drugs would cause to communities across the country.

“This investigation has been supported by the National Crime Agency and Border Force and has had a huge impact in taking a huge number of drugs off the streets, but also the people involved - from the ones at the top pulling the strings to bring the drugs into the country, to those on the streets supplying the final product, and everything in between.

"Nottinghamshire Police is fully committed to tackling drugs and protecting people from the serious harm it causes, from the serious violence that street gangs enact on the streets in turf wars to the robberies, burglaries and theft that drug dependency can lead to - not to mention the health impacts.

Efforts to identify and seize money or other assets gained from the crimes are under way under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

One of those was involved was jailed for 29 years, another for 22 years and two others for 20 years.