A LEIGH man at the centre of a major drugs money laundering operation has been sentenced to eight years in jail.

John Paul Hart, aged 28, of Barker Street, Leigh was among seven people who were given a total of 60 years in prison for crime which netted them over £4 million.

They were all sentenced at Manchester Crown Court following a National Crime Squad investigation into money laundering and the importation and distribution of amphetamines and cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy.

Hart pleaded laundering the the proceeds of drug trafficking. The court heard how the defendants had used a network of mailboxes to receive packages of drugs posted from overseas.

The drugs were then distributed, with the money made from selling them then exchanged for foreign currency.

Alongside Hart in the dock were six others - from Wigan, Upholland, Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle under Lyne.

All were arrested as part of Operation Mistero, undertaken by officers from the National Crime Squad's Manchester Branch.

The court heard how Hart and co-defendant Mark Green would visit bureaux de change exchanging large amounts of cash (as much as £160,000 at one time) into differing currencies.