David Ihenagwa of Edmonton, north London, was found guilty of supplying class B and class C controlled drugs after purchasing them from a wholesaler in Surrey.

Mr Ihenagwa worked as a company secretary in his mother’s east London pharmacy, which he used to operate the “criminal enterprise”, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said in a statement on Monday (January 27).

Officers from the MHRA seized 13,440 codeine phosphate tablets from an address in Stoke-on-Trent in June 2016, and traced them back to the pharmacy where Mr Ihenagwa worked.

MHRA investigations found that Mr Ihenagwa “regularly” bought controlled drugs in “far larger quantities” than a community pharmacy would usually dispense.

He was charged with supplying class B drug codeine phosphate and class C drugs diazepam, zopiclone, lorazepam and tramadol between September 2015 and April 2016.

The medicines would be collected from the pharmacy “by the van load” by a gang and shipped around the country, the MHRA said, adding that Mr Ihenagwa sold medicines on “at least” 23 occasions.

Mr Ihenagwa pleaded guilty to one charge of supplying class B drugs and four charges of supplying class C drugs. He was sentenced to six years in prison at Croydon Crown Court last week.