A YORKSHIRE man who sold large quantities of cutting agents to drug dealers has been jailed for 18 years.

Gregory King, 26, from Wetherby, used his online chemical supply businesses to sell 1.2 tonnes of dental anaesthetic benzocaine, which is used to bulk cocaine, between April 2013 and January 2014.

King's prosecution follows an investigation by the National Crime Agency and the Metropolitan Police Service’s Organised Crime Partnership, which also found the over a two-year period, King also supplied lidocaine, phenacetin, caffeine, paracetamol and aspirin to drug dealers throughout the UK and internationally.

He was arrested in January 2014 after large quantities of cutting agents, some in jiffy bags ready for postage, were seized from a lock-up in Wetherby from which he ran his business. He was interviewed and released on bail but continued to operate.

In June 2014, three men from Southampton travelled to Leeds to collect 50 kilos of benzocaine in two barrels, one of which was delivered to another man in Islington later that day.

King later provided police with an invoice made out to one of the men showing a cost of £5,000, but police said ten kilos of benzocaine costing approximately £3,000, mixed with ten kilos of cocaine costing approximately £350,000, could generate a potential return of £750,000.

King was found guilty by a jury at the Old Bailey in March 2016 alongside one of the men of conspiring to supply class A drugs. On June 29 they received sentences of 18 years and 14 years respectively.