The gang have now been sentenced: Read about it here

A 'PUPPET master' and his drugs lieutenants have been found guilty of conspiracy to supply cocaine in bulk to be sold on the streets of Worcester.

'Puppet master' Mohammed Nasar, his son Aaqib Nasar, Robert Degaris and Steven Binning were all found guilty of the cocaine conspiracy today after a four week trial at Worcester Crown Court.

There was a sombre, subdued reaction in the dock and gasps from the packed public gallery when the unanimous guilty verdicts were delivered by the foreman of the jury.

The jury, made up of seven men and five women, retired yesterday afternoon to consider its verdict and returned to continue its deliberations today.

Before the jury returned Judge Robert Juckes QC had asked for 'decorum' from the public gallery after a mobile phone was dropped on the ceiling of the dock the previous day.

Police officers and security staff were also brought into the public gallery once the note from the jury arrived.

The jury took four hours and 55 minutes to reach verdicts and some observers ran from the court after the verdicts came in.

Mohammed Nasar, aged 50, of Keswick Drive, Warndon, Worcester was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to supply cocaine between January 1, 2015 and December 8, 2016 and a single count of conspiracy to transfer criminal property between January 1, 2015 and December 8, 2016.

Aaqib Nasar, aged 22, of Bath Road, Worcester, Robert Degaris, aged 48, of Popert Drive, Worcester, and Steven Binning, aged 35, of Audley Drive, Kidderminster were each found guilty of a single count of conspiracy to supply cocaine.

The prosecution was led by John Butterfield QC. In his opening he described Mohammed Nasar as the 'puppet master' who 'pulled the strings', organising the bulk selling of the class A drug to the Ashley James gang. The James syndicate, via middle men and street dealers, then sold the cocaine on to addicts and users.

Members of the James gang already stood convicted of conspiracy to supply cocaine following a trial which finished last November and part of the prosecution case was the links between both conspiracies, one a buying and the other a selling network in the chain.

Mr Butterfield described the gang as 'peddling the misery of drugs to line their own pockets'. Degaris and Binning both acted as drugs couriers at different stages of the conspiracy while Aaqib Nasar wore 'the captain's armband', meeting Ashley James while his dad was away on a course in Derby.

The case has involved a wide range of evidence including call logs showing contact between the conspirators and cell site analysis which placed them at specific locations at key times during the conspiracy. Automatic numberplate recognition cameras for vehicles, CCTV footage, police surveillance observations, DNA evidence and clandestine recordings from a bugged van also featured.

Part of this conspiracy involving Mohammed Nasar and Robert Degaris was linked to another conspiracy led by Ashley James and also involving Jamie Jones, Todd Porter, David Warren, Chris Cornes and Marcus Henney.

Judge Juckes remanded all four defendants in custody, adding: "The time for bail has now passed because all these defendants face significant custodial sentences."

He said he would pass sentence tomorrow and said if members of the jury wished to return to observe they would be welcomed as 'honoured guests'.

Timeline of a conspiracy

•             July 15 2015 – November 17, 2015: Police bug Ashley James’s van to secretly record conversations. The prosecution say racist references by James are descriptions of Mohammed Nasar. Todd Porter is heard to say ‘Scousers going to be fading now’ which the prosecution said was a reference to that supply line from that source having run dry and their need to get the drugs instead from Nasar’s selling network.

•             May 13, 2015 – Convicted cocaine dealers Chris Cornes and Marcus Henney are arrested at the junction of Deansway and Copenhagen Street in Worcester with half a kilo of cocaine with a street value of between £15,000 and £22,500. Robert Degaris hands over the cocaine to Cornes and Henney during a meeting at the City Gym car park in Westbury Street, Worcester. The arrest leads to members of the James gang to speculate that Degaris was ‘a grass’.

•             May 13, 2015 – Police execute a warrant at 118 Bromyard Road, St John’s, Worcester, the house shared by Cornes, Henney and Todd Porter. Police recover a drugs list written by Cornes and more than £35,000 in cash, including £19,900 from a wash basket in Cornes’s room.

•             May 28, 2015 – meeting at Worcester tip in Bilford Road between Ashley James, David Warren and Aaqib Nasar, son of 'the puppet master'. Aaqib is photographed shaking Ashley James's hand. The prosecution case is that Aaqib would ‘put on the captain’s armband when his dad left the field of play’. Warren, also a convicted conspirator, works at the tip. The prosecution describe the conspirators as ‘licking their wounds’ and ‘taking stock’ following the arrest of Cornes and Henney. Nasar junior claims he had been at the tip dropping off garden waste.

•              July 27, 2015: Mohammed Nasar meets now convicted drug dealer Saheed Iqbal outside his home address in Keswick Drive, Warndon, Worcester. He also meets Jonathan Loxley. He says Loxley had wanted to see him about getting ‘badged up’ for security work. Nasar says Iqbal is his cocaine dealer. Nasar's contention is that he is getting cocaine from Iqbal to use rather than supplying Iqbal with cocaine to sell. Loxley was convicted of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs alongside Nasar on June 25, 2003.

•             November 6: Aaqib Nasar is placed under surveillance by police.

•             November 11, 2015: Aaqib Nasar is observed in Saheed Iqbal’s taxi in Midland Road, Worcester at around 3pm. Nasar disputed throughout the trial it was him in the passenger seat of the taxi and said several members of his family drove the silver Audi observed nearby.

•             November 13, 2015: Worcester taxi driver Saheed Iqbal is arrested with 1kg of cocaine worth at least £35,000 but possibly up to £100,000 in street deals. The drugs are found behind a panel inside the Peugeot taxi. The drugs were given to Iqbal in a white box by Steven Binning in Stourport Road, Kidderminster after they met initially in the car park of B&Q. Binning claims he was dropping off a loan of £1,500 for Nasar. He says Iqbal was there to pick up the cash. Phones are also seized from Iqbal which show phone contact between him, Mohammed Nasar and Binning. Iqbal is under surveillance because police suspected he is using his taxi as a cover for his ‘real occupation of selling drugs’. Despite claims of the £1,500 loan, only £530 is found in the taxi when Iqbal is arrested.

•             December 11, 2015: Sarah Lancaster, the ex-partner of Mohammed Nasar, is arrested on the A449 at Claines at around 3.45pm. She is found with £19,980 in criminal cash and a ‘dirty phone’ Nasar had given her. She had been driving back to Worcester from Telford. The 'mystery man' she meets in Telford has never been successfully identified. The DNA of Nasar, Lancaster and Degaris is found on the dirty phone. After Lancaster is released from Worcester Police Station at 9.34pm she goes to Sin in New Street, Worcester. CCTV shows her entering the club at 9.56pm after she is dropped off by Neil Taylor, described by police as 'a known associate of Nasar'. The prosecution say Lancaster made ‘a beeline’ for Nasar after her arrest but Nasar said he was simply 'a shoulder to cry on'.

•             December 8, 2016: The defendants are arrested. All give no comment interviews.