SIX Pembrokeshire people are being sentenced at Swansea Crown Court today (June 23) for their roles in a huge cocaine conspiracy.

They were involved in shipping £1m worth of the class A drug into the area until they were caught by local detectives in Operation Pigeon.

Leigh Salter, aged 37, of Steynton Road, Milford Haven and James Bolton, 48, of Kiln Road, Johnson, Haverfordwest, played leading roles, said Robin Rouch, the barrister leading the prosecution.

They worked with drug suppliers from Liverpool but before he was arrested Salter had gone on to set up a quite separate conspiracy buying cocaine from Swansea.

Awaiting sentence: Leigh Salter, 37

Salter and Bolton, plus Bolton’s then partner Siobhan Jackson, 39, also of Kiln Road, and Andrew Davies, 54, of Hill Street, Haverfordwest, had admitted conspiring with others to supply cocaine between September 1, 2012, and April 22, 2015.

Richard Conroy, 48, of Cherry Tree Close, Milford Haven, admitted “laundering” £1,500 in cash knowing or believing it represented the proceeds of criminal activity.

David Parker, aged 41, of Skomer Drive, Milford Haven, admitted conspiring with Salter to take cocaine from Swansea to Pembrokeshire.

Guilty of money laundering: Richard Conroy

Adam Idris, 33, of Grove Dale Road, Liverpool, and Adam Woodhouse, 34, of Weaver Close, Alsager, Staffordshire, admitted the main conspiracy charge.

Dannielle Maloney, 36, of Dovedale Road, Liverpool, and John Foster, 34, of Tiverton Road, Liverpool, admitted money laundering.

Mr Rouch said during Operation Pigeon detectives installed a secret listening device inside Bolton’s Station Automotives firm in Milford Haven.

Admitted dealing: James Bolton and Siobhan Jackson

They also logged mobile telephone traffic, car movements and money transfers and in all were able to identify 43 drug runs, although after his arrest Woodhouse alone confessed to at least 60.

It became clear, said Mr Rouch, that Salter and Bolton were the “main players” locally and that Idris was the supplier and Woodhouse the main courier.

When police moved in to make arrests they made finds that suggested half a kilo of cocaine, worth £30,000, were being shipped each time.

The listening device picked up Bolton and Jackson discussing delivery routes and changing mobile telephones.

And Jackson was followed to Liverpool.

Mr Rouch said Operation Pigeon soon became intertwined with another drugs operation that involved Idris supplying cocaine from Liverpool to the Stoke-on-Trent area.

Despite being arrested in connection with that crime and granted police bail Idris continued to supply drugs to Pembrokeshire.

Bolton, the court heard, had been convicted in 2010 of possessing cocaine with intent to supply.

By the end of Thursday’s hearing the judge, Judge Paul Thomas, had listened to mitigation on behalf of most of the defendants.

Bolton, he was told, had been traumatised at the age of three when his father killed his mother and at the time of his arrest was leading such a chaotic lifestyle he was positively relieved to be caught and put into custody.

Jackson was no longer in a relationship with Bolton.

Davies made £700 by acting as a drugs courier on four occasions.

And Parker had been caught the one and only time he had agreed to collect a package from Swansea and deliver it to Salter.

Judge Thomas said he would sentence the defendants on Friday.

But he told Conroy he fell into a different category and agreed to sentence him there and then.

Conroy, who fits burglar alarms and fire alarms as a job, was made the subject of a 12 month community order and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work for the community and to pay £500 prosecution costs.