Deborah Mason

A GRANDMOTHER from Tufnell Park will spend 20 years behind bars for heading up a national drug-dealing operation.

Deborah Mason, 65, was known as “Queen Bee” and led the family-run organised crime group as it supplied nearly a tonne of cocaine over seven months.

Mason was sentenced alongside five other women and a man at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday.

They will serve a combined 106 years and six months in prison.

The group had collected packages of imported cocaine and distributed them across London and the UK, in places like Bristol, Birmingham, and Cardiff.

Police estimated that each member of the operation was making £1,000 a day.

Met Detective Constable Jack Kraushaar, who led the investigation, said: “This was a sophisticated operation which was extremely profitable for those involved.

“Following months of work by the Met police to relentlessly pursue these perpetrators, we were able to arrest and eventually convict them, preventing more drugs flooding streets across the UK which leads to violence, anti-social behaviour and misery for communities.”

DC Kraushaar added: “The group were sucked into criminality, selfishly attracted by the financial benefits of the drug-dealing to fund lavish lifestyles.

“They were unaware we were coming for them and this sentencing should act as a deterrent to those who think about committing this type of crime.”