Hayling Island drugs dealer told to pay £25,000 or face more time in jail
HAUL Drugs found by police after bust
THE leader of a criminal gang who was jailed after a massive drugs bust has been told to pay up £25,000 he made from dealing.
Gary Rix has six months to hand the money over or he will have another year added to the six-year stretch he is already serving.
The police moved to seize the 45-year-old’s cash under the Proceeds of Crime Act after he was jailed in 2009.
A judge at Portsmouth Crown Court ruled Rix had benefited to the tune of £25,000 from his criminal behaviour and ordered him to pay the cash.
Bernard Barber, a financial investigator for Hampshire police, said: ‘This sends out the message to people out there that if they commit crime, whether it’s drugs trafficking or any form of crime, and they benefit financially then we will be after them to take their money.
‘It’s part of our ongoing commitment to take proceeds away from those that have been convicted of criminality, whatever the level of their involvement in crime.’
Wearing a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a polo shirt, Rix appeared relaxed during the latest hearing.
His gang, based in Hayling Island, planned to bring almost £1m worth of cannabis to our streets.
He was arrested following an eight-month investigation in July 2008.
Hampshire’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit watched Rix, and another man, Dennis Riley, load 12 boxes containing 295 kilogrammes of the drug into the back of their van in a car park in Brent Cross, London. Officers then shot out the tyres to stop them getting away.
Riley, 58, of Earls Court, London, was jailed for four years.
Rix, who owned Lily Sugars bar in Creek Road, Hayling Island, which has since been repossessed, was found with a gun, a can of CS gas and 15 grammes of cocaine when police searched his home in Selsmore Avenue, Hayling Island.
He pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis with intent to supply, possession of cocaine and two counts of possession of a firearm.
Judge Roger Hetherington said: ‘I will allow six months to pay the sum with a period in default of 12 months.’
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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