AN ongoing trial is being heard at Oxford Crown Court in connection to a cocaine kingpin who was jailed for 21 years after a large-scale drug operation was unveiled by police.

Brothers Richard and Patrick Gray were jailed in the summer of 2022 after being found guilty of supplying large quantities of cocaine to ‘downstream customers’ across Oxfordshire.

They were caught after police swooped in on the gang in May, raiding properties in Oxford, Witney, Banbury, and Milton Keynes, seizing 2.5kg of high-purity cocaine and around £110,000 in cash.

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Ringleader Richard Gray, then 33, was jailed for 21 years while his older brother, then 44, received 18 years.

On January 18, a trial started of three people charged in connection with the operation.

The first was Richard Gray’s former partner, Melissa Grant, who has been charged with possession of criminal property, namely £44,315 in cash.

The court she did not take an ‘active part’ in the operation but she was aware of it.

However, the 33-year-old, of Barley Court, Witney, pleaded guilty a week after the trial started on January 23.

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She was standing trial with Mark Hickford, 51, and Liam Field, 26, who are accused of being ‘downstream customers’ of the drug kingpins and have been charged with conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Hickman, of Hartford Road, in Edmonton, Field, of Swindon, have denied their involvement in the multi-million-pound conspiracy.

The trial heard on Tuesday (January 23) that Hickford allegedly met Richard Gray at Beaconsfield Service Station on April 21, 2021 and that multiple phone calls were exchanged between the pair.

CCTV was shown of the pair allegedly sat together in Gray’s white Fiat Doblo van.

Evidence was also present about Gray’s mobile exchanges, including his use of EncroChat, an encrypted message software, to seemingly message customers and couriers with his username ‘CheetahSoda’.

However, it is believed Hickford did not use this software.

Previously, the trial of the Gray brothers heard that the operation included sending couriers north to Preston and Bury to pick up two kilos of cocaine at a time.

The drugs were taken to a ‘stash house’ in Banbury where Sophie Plowman lived, Richard Gray’s second girlfriend.

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She was jailed for five years for her involvement.

Cutting agents, used to dilute the cocaine, were found at Lower Whitley Farm, near Farmoor Reservoir, where Patrick Gray worked for his father-in-law.

A sentencing date for Grant has not yet been set until the trial of Hickford and Field is complete. It continues this week.