ANOTHER member of a gang that flooded south Monmouthshire and the Forest of Dean with drugs has been ordered to pay a fraction of the £500,000 he made from his crimes.

Andrew Harris of High Street, Cinderford, will at least have to hand over £79,944 though, compared to just £1 and £5 for some of his associates, or spend an extra year in jail on top of the five years and seven months he is currently serving.

The gang based in Chepstow and the Forest flooded the local area with cocaine trafficked from Spain.

Eight members were sentenced to more than 40 years jail time last January, but Cardiff Crown Court heard at the time that Harris' stepson – suspected gang leader Paul Harris, 27, from Cinderford, who has "links to the Chepstow and Magor areas” – was still on the run and thought to be hiding out in Colombia or Venezuela.

Prosecutor Alexander Greenwood told a Proceeds of Crime Hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday that Andrew Harris, 50, had benefitted by £503,982, but there was only £79,944 in available assets which could be seized.

Harris was given three months to cough up, or serve the extra jail time.

Other defendants who benefitted by hundreds of thousands of pounds have previously been ordered to pay peanuts beacuse no assets could be found.

Gang kingpin Ashley Bollen of Dewstow Road, Caldicot, who is serving eight years for dealing cocaine, amphetamine, ketamine and cannabis, was adjudged to have made £300,000 from the conspiracy, but was told to pay just £5 last month after police and prosecutors could find nothing of his ill-gotten gains.

In the summer, fellow conspirator Charlie Linstead, 28, of Alice Crescent, Thornwell, Chepstow, who was handed a suspended jail sentence in January, was ordered to pay just £1 having benefitted to the tune of £338,554.

The mother of Paul Harris – Helga Boehm, 48, of High Street, Cinderford – profited by £265,586, but was also ordered to pay £1 having been jailed for four years and 10 months.

Peter Wright, 33, of Channel View, Bulwark, Chepstow, who was jailed for five years and one month, benefited to the tune of £145,367, but only had assets of £225, which he was ordered to hand over or serve another seven days behind bars.

Lucy Hart, 27, also of Channel View, Bulwark, who received a suspended jail term, profited by £185,660, but only had £1,400 which she was ordered to pay or serve 28 days.

A Gwent Police spokesperson said at the time of the sentences: “Between February and October 2021, we carried out enforcement activities throughout the south of Monmouthshire which led to the seizure of drugs, cash and mobile phones.

“The phones seized not only showed their owners’ significant involvement in the supply of drugs, it also showed all those who worked with them.

“Over the two-year long investigation, we carried out eight warrants and more than £50,000 worth of class A and B drugs were seized, along with over £40,000 of cash.

"In one warrant alone, £38,000 was found in a money safe disguised as a book.”

Two others were also sentenced for their roles in the gang – Matthew Nicholas, 36, of Llanmartin was jailed for eight years and two months, while Duncan Peters, 51, of Saxon Place, Sedbury, Chepstow, received a two-year suspended jail term.

Gwent Police appealed for help in tracking Paul Harris down in 2022, saying at the time: “Our officers would like to speak to the 25-year-old, who is also known as Paul Boehm, in connection with an investigation into drug trafficking offences."