THREE men from an "extensive and professionally run" county lines drug network that operated across Basingstoke have been sent to prison.

Jeffrey Zani, Matthew Temple and Louis Robinson-Ventour were sentenced to a total of more than 18 years in prison after admitting involvement in the G 423 county lines network, which shipped cocaine and heroin from Hounslow in London to Basingstoke.

The network was set up just days after Zani, who had been convicted for drugs trafficking in Oxford, was moved to Basingstoke and given a housing association property in Popley.

Winchester Crown Court heard on Thursday how Zani and Robinson-Ventour, both 20, had "leading roles" in the conspiracy, which operated for 13 months in 2018 and 2019, whilst Temple, 46, had utilised his position as a taxi driver in the town to transport dealers and runners.

Temple, who had been a successful businessman before his company, Order of Service Online Ltd, went bust after a major creditor went bankrupt, boasted about how he was "Basingstoke's number one taxi driver".

Text messages from him on September 24, 2018, shown to the court, said: "I'm only out working... doing what I do best, taking Basingstoke's high rollers, drug dealers, ex-convicts and hodrats [sic] where they need to go LOL.

"It's a tough job being BASINGSTOKE'S NUMBER 1 Taxi Driver."

The 46-year-old, of no fixed abode, was forced to sell his house after the dissolution of his company, and became a driver for one of the town's private hire companies.

He had previously been caught for driving whilst under the influence of cocaine and subsequently disqualified, but failed to tell his employer, including working alongside the Bestie drugs line, prosecutor Mark Ruffell said.

Temple, who had also been involved with a football team in Popley, was paid partly in cash and partly in kind, with Mr Ruffell saying he had a crack cocaine addiction.

Mr Ruffell said that Zani, of Redding Close in Quedgeley near Gloucester, was "the key player on the ground in Basingstoke", and his co-conspirators had a "strong friendship, not a gang dominance situation".

The 20-year-old had a promising football career, having a scholarship with non-league side Oxford City, before he was sacked because of a previous conviction.

He was convicted in 2017, at the age of just 16, of possessing cocaine with the intent to supply in Oxford, and was given a youth rehabilitation order for two months.

Then, in 2018, he was charged with having £2,000 of class A drugs in his possession, serving a community order as punishment.

However, the court heard that after these cases, he was moved to Basingstoke to be away from the Oxford area. But he still owed a debt to dealers after the drugs in his possession was confiscated and destroyed, meaning that the only way for him to repay them was to continue working with them.

"No sooner had he been given a housing association property in Popley, the G 423 drugs line started operating," Mr Ruffell said.

"Jeffrey Zani's home of Tewkesbury Close in Popley was the main operating centre for the conspiracy.

"The Crown suggest that Jeffrey Zani housed the runners that appeared from London and dealt drugs himself."

Meanwhile Robinson-Ventour was the cousin of the suspected kingpin, Mr Ruffell said, and the 20-year-old played "a crucial role running drugs couriers from Hounslow to Basingstoke and enabling class A drugs to get to Basingstoke to be sold".

The court heard how Robinson-Ventour, also a keen footballer who had played for the Met Police football team, suffered a knee injury and lost family members shortly before the G 423 network was set up in 2018.

It was this that brought him closer to his older cousin, and he agreed to assist him.

Summing up, Judge Andrew Barnett said that the trio "must bear the condemnation of society".

He said: "This is a conspiracy which was extensive and professionally run and it operated over a period of at least eight months that I have heard about and a great number of people that were involved with it.

"The main two and founding fathers are not before the court and they are undoubtedly responsible for setting it up and getting you three involved.

"What the three of you have to understand is that people who get involved with the distribution of class A drugs ruin their lives."

He acknowledged that prison sentences would be "especially hard" because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Temple was given four years and eight months, as well as an additional four months for driving whilst disqualified, to be served concurrently.

Judge Barnett sentenced Robinson-Ventour to six years and eight months in prison, whilst because this was Zani's third drugs trafficking offence, he was given seven years and four months in prison.

Three further defendants are due to be sentenced tomorrow (Friday) in connection with the case.