Fake Xanax pills gang members jailed

Four people have been jailed for their roles in a £4m fake Xanax drug-making operation.

A gang of 10 family members and friends produced up to 11 million counterfeit pills in garden sheds and garages in Tipton, Wednesbury and Wolverhampton, selling them as authentic anti-anxiety medication on the so-called dark web.

On Friday, Scott Tonkinson, Jordan Pitts, Anthony Pitts and Bladen Roper were jailed at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Five other gang members, including the ringleader, were sentenced on Thursday. Another is due to be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Monday.

Tests revealed the fake tablets contained varying amounts of the active ingredient Alprazalam - from none at all to twice the standard amount.

The Crown Prosecution service said the group were not concerned with the dangers of producing the pills and "only saw a money-making opportunity".

Tonkinson, of Arundel Road, Willenhall, was jailed for four years and six months after admitting five charges, including conspiracy to supply Class C drugs.

Judge John Butterfield said the 36-year-old, whose half-brother Brian Pitts led the operation, was initially involved in making the fake pills, before being told he was not making enough and the job was given to someone else.

Anthony Pitts, 41 of Belmont Close, Tipton, another half-brother of the ringleader, had earlier pleaded guilty to three charges including conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and was sentenced to five years and five months.

His role was described as packing pills and maintaining the pill-making machines.

His mother, Deborah Bellingham, 58, is due to be sentenced on the same charges on Monday.

Jordan Pitts, 26, and Bladen Roper, 25, of Hickman Road and Powis Avenue in Tipton, were both previously convicted by a jury of assisting in the operation.

Jailing Pitts for three years, Judge Butterfield said he had been involved in packing and posting the fake tablets, and parcels that had been intercepted in the USA were labelled with his name.

The judge said Roper, who was involved in ordering the materials needed to make the pills, appeared to be unaware of the operation at first, but evidence suggested he was later "clearly aware" of what was going on.

Roper, who had separately pleaded guilty to driving offences including dangerous driving and driving while disqualified, was jailed for three years and three months.

On Thursday, the gang's ringleader Brian Pitts, 30, from Wednesbury, was jailed for eight years.

Described by the judge as the "overlord" and the "beating heart" of the enterprise, he ran the operation from a luxury villa in Thailand between 2018 and 2019, shipping tablets across the UK and to the USA.

He was assisted by his then partner Katie Harlow, 27, from Bilston, who was jailed for two years and one month.

Three other gang members - Brian Pitts' father-in-law Lee Lloyd, 48, Kyle Smith, 26, and Mark Bayley, 63 - were given sentences of between four years and seven years and two months.

Judge Butterfield described the enterprise as "large scale, organised and determined".

The operation was uncovered following an investigation by the maker of Xanax, Pfizer.

The gang used cryptocurrency to buy the powder needed to make the pills from China, which were pressed in four legally-obtained pill-making machines.

Fake Xanax stamps were used to make the pills appear authentic.

Jonathan Kelleher from the Crown Prosecution Service said: "These drugs should only be prescribed by a doctor and anyone buying them on the Dark Web, produced in a back-garden shed, has no clue what they are taking."

Follow BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.