A man who was part of a gang supplying “vast amounts” of high purity cocaine has pleaded guilty.

Andrew Georgiou, of Nevill Way, Loughton, will be sentenced at a later date after pleading guilty to conspiracy.

Georgiou, 53, was part of a “large-scale and sophisticated” gang which had £15.6 million worth of cocaine seized by police and had made a further £23 million from some 1,157 deals.

Yesterday (November 26) at Southwark Crown Court three members of the gang were jailed for conspiracy to supply cocaine: Ronald Hook, 36, of Hatfield in Hertfordshire was jailed for 22 years; Warren Gravette, 47, of Winchmore Hill, N21, was sentenced to 10 years; and Spencer Pasicznyk, 41, of Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, was jailed for 13 years.

Metropolitan Police detective inspector Paul Foreman said: “These three men were big players in the supply of cocaine to the streets of London and beyond.

“They had set up a highly-sophisticated operation, taking delivery of vast amounts of cocaine and mixing it with cutting agents before selling it on at enormous profit.

“The drugs were incredibly pure and worth huge amounts of money.

“But a lengthy and meticulous police operation succeeding in dismantling their operation and I am pleased at the substantial jail terms they have received today.”

Police began monitoring the group in April 2013.

Operating from an industrial unit in Clapton, E5, the men disguised their work storing and ‘cutting’ cocaine with cheap filler as legitimate building work.

Tests showed the cocaine in its natural form was some of the purest ever seen in the UK, at 92 per cent.

It was then mixed with benzocaine, a local anaesthetic, to be sold on at a huge profit.

Doing business by mobile phone, in cars or on golf courses, each gang member had their own nicknames – Georgiou was 'Bubble', Pasicznyk 'Boz', Hook 'Artful' and Gravette was known was 'Ears'.

Georgiou “played a significant role in day-to-day operations” but was beneath the others, with Hook heading the operation and using the profits to fund a lifestyle playing golf, socialising and travelling.

On holiday in Cyprus when police raided the unit in Clapton and Hook’s home in October 2013, Georgiou was arrested when he returned to Luton airport on July 2, 2014.

Pasicznyk had been caught with 6kg of cocaine at the industrial unit, Hook was arrested at home and Gravette was arrested in Amsterdam in January 2014.

Two men were previously jailed for conspiracy to supply cocaine in February 2014 after they were caught driving 69.9kg of cocaine from the unit in Clapton.

Sergio Gomes, then 38, of Ivychurch Lane, SE17 was jailed for 12 years and Camilo Valencia-Garcia, then 33 of Ravenhill Road, E13, was also sentenced to 12 years.