TWO drug runners who worked for a daily wage delivering cocaine from major dealers to buyers have avoided jail.

Conrad Deprose, 30, and Jeremy Goldner, were said to be operating at the “very bottom” of an “organised crime group” running wraps of cocaine to buyers for a daily wage, Basildon Crown Court heard.

Their arrests followed Essex Police raids on the morning of October 7, 2020, when officers carried out a series of warrants in in Grays, Wickford, Brentwood, and Canvey Island.

Their targets were a group established in 2019 who had been selling Class A drugs across the county.

During the raids, they seized thousands of pounds in cash as well as drugs.

They ran their operation out of a container within a privately owned and secured yard in Lower Noke Close, Noak Hill.

At Basildon Crown Court in February seven of the group’s leaders were jailed for a total of 55 years and eight months.

The investigation came out of Operation Venetic – a major operation involving the cracking of a bespoke encrypted global communication service, exclusively used by criminals.

At the same court on August 5, Deprose and Goldner, 54, were handed suspended sentences for their “lesser role” in the organisation.

The pair were said to have been working for a daily wage of about £280, running wraps from the main dealers to buyers, the court heard.

On his arrest, Mr Goldner was found with 45 wraps of cocaine in his possession.

Judge Samantha Leigh said: “This is an organised crime group and you three were very much at the bottom of the criminal enterprise.

“Mr Deprose, you were a runner paid wages to deliver small quantities of cocaine… You never purchased or packaged any of the drugs. “

Deprose, of Alicia Avenue, Wickford, was handed a suspended sentence of 24 months for conspiracy to supply a class A drug.

He was told he must undertake 300 hours of unpaid community work, attend 60 days of rehabilitation and was also slapped with a four-month curfew.

Goldner, of Northolm, Edgware, north London, was also handed a 24-month suspended sentence for the same charge and ordered to partake in 280 hours unpaid work and 60 days of rehabilitation.