POLICE have revealed how they brought down one of the biggest drugs operations uncovered in Notts in six years.
Officers spoke after the "missing piece in the jigsaw", Oliver Grassi, was jailed for buying more than £1.6m of cannabis as part of the group.
He was the last person to be sentenced in a case led by the Operation Vanguard team at Notts Police.
It began in 2010 after a routine raid on a house in The Park led detectives to a drugs racket with national and international links.
They eventually discovered the operation was worth £18m in illegal drugs.
Detective Inspector Keith Priest and Detective Constable Andrew Gerus said the operation was one of the most widespread uncovered by Vanguard in its six-year history.
DI Priest said: "It's up there with one of the biggest we've been involved in."
Grassi was one of a group responsible for flooding the region with drugs between July 2005 and September 2011.
He is now starting a 30-month sentence handed to him at Nottingham Crown Court last week. He had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to supply controlled substances.
Detective Constable Gerus said: "This has been a painstaking investigation involving a lot of joining the dots and paperwork.
"Grassi's sentence ties up a loose end and a substantial one at that."
