The conspiracy saw the group of seven men sell an estimated £261,000-worth of crack cocaine and heroin on the streets of Newport over an eight-and-a-half month period in 2018 and 2019.

Customers would call a phone line, known as the “Goshi line”, before meeting a dealer who sold them the Class A drugs, a sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard on Monday.

Prosecutors said the leader of the group, Aftab Hussain, ran the phone line service with others acting as “lieutenants” on his behalf.

The 31-year-old from Newport was sentenced to 17 years behind bars for his role in the conspiracy while those working for him received lesser sentences.

Prosecutor Heath Edwards said the group were found in possession of 355g of heroin and 16g crack cocaine, worth an estimated £8,115, at the time of their arrest in July 2019.

Investigating officer DC Michael Coles provided evidence to the court based on the volume of drugs trafficked by the gang over the period of their conspiracy, Mr Edwards said.

He said officers calculated that the gang were making about 28 individual crack and heroin deals with customers every day between November 1, 2018, and July 26, 2019. The court heard these were commonly sold in small 1.75g or 3.5g quantities.

Extrapolating, Mr Edwards said officers estimated a total of 13kg of Class A drugs were sold by the gang over the course of the 267-day conspiracy. He said this would have netted a street value of at least £261,000 but it is possible they could have sold “substantially more”.

Aftab Hussain, of Laburnum Drive, Newport, and Lewis Farrell, 21, of Herbert Walk, Newport, were found guilty of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin following a six-week trial earlier this year.

Parvis Ishaq, 30, of Cyril Street, Murtaza Hussain, 24, of Capel Crescent, Avtar Hussain, 27, of Bishpool View, Rizwaan Hussain, 24, of Llanthewy Road, and Mohammed Ali, 38, of no fixed abode all pleaded guilty to the same charges during the trial.

Karl Williams, defending Aftab Hussain, said: “With his growing up in the area that he did, in Pill, the dealing of drugs came within his knowledge at a very young age. It was something that he became involved in.”

Passing sentence, Judge Richard Twomlow said the defendants were all involved in running a “sophisticated and determined” drug operation, which saw customers contacting a single phone number known as the “Goshi line” to order Class A drugs.

Judge Twomlow said Aftab Hussain played a “leading role” in the conspiracy with a “number of faithful lieutenants” working below him. “You were the leader of this organised crime group,” he said.

“The officer said in his experience the ‘Goshi line’ displayed all the signs of a line used by an organised crime group. A large client base had been developed.”

He added: “A carefully worked out estimate indicates between November 2018 and July 2019 there were 60,000 calls or texts made to or from the ‘Goshi line’.

“The estimated range of the drugs sold in those nine months was between 13 and 26kg with an estimated value of between a quarter of a million pounds and half a million pounds.”

Aftab Hussain was sentenced to 17 years in prison while Parvis Ishaq was sentenced to 10 years behind bars.

Murtaza Hussain was jailed for eight years and nine months and Rizwaan Hussain received a sentence of six years and eight months in prison. Avtar Hussain was locked up for seven years.

The court heard Mohammed Ali was convicted in July 2019 for matters relating to the conspiracy and is currently serving a three-year prison sentence. Judge Twomlow sentenced him to three years and nine months in prison to run consecutively with his current three-year sentence.

Lewis Farrell will be listed for sentence at a later date following issues with his defence representation.