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One of London's most notorious gangsters was jailed today for his role in a drug dealing network which operated from a car tyre shop in Brixton.
Tony Brindle, 45, a member of the Brindle crime family in south London, was among nine men sentenced to a total of 81 years in prison.
He was jailed for 11 years six months for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
The drugs gang used Zak's Tyres in Pulross Road, Brixton, as the hub of the cocaine trafficking operation.
Two other addresses - one in Brixton and one in South Kensington - were used to prepare and package drugs.
The Kensington property - at Manson Place near South Kensington Tube station - was also used as a crack cocaine factory.
Detectives recovered £65,000 in cash and cocaine with a street value of £160,000.
The jury at Kingston Crown Court heard that the gang were operating at the highest levels of the illegal drugs trade.
In 2001 Brindle was shot twice by former IRA hitman Michael Boyle. Boyle was in turn shot and wounded by police marksmen watching the house at the time.
Brindle, of Robertsbridge, Surrey, later sued police for negligence claiming they should have prevented the shooting but he lost the High Court action.
Detectives said he was a key figure in supplying the car shop with large quantities of cocaine. Another kingpin in the operation, John Cobbina, 43, of Chelsea Harbour, was jailed for 12 years.
Detective Sergeant Richard Noble, from the Middle Market Drugs Squad, said: “These prison sentences should go a long way in reassuring the public that we are dedicated to removing drugs and those supplying them from the streets of the capital.”
