MEMBERS of a nationwide drug trafficking group which caused "incalculable" harm to North Wales communities have had their possessions taken away from them.

The Leader reported in September last year on the three-day sentencing of 18 defendants involved with Operation Tide - with their sentences reaching almost 150 years of jail time collectively.

Several of those defendants appeared at Caernarfon Crown Court on Friday for Proceeds of Crime proceedings - the term given to money or assets gained by criminals during the course of their criminal activity which the the authorities have powers to seek to confiscate.

Of the six defendants who appeared, several had no money left to pay back - despite the court finding a benefit (the value of the property or financial advantage that a defendant has obtained from his criminal conduct) to have been high in some cases.

First up was 23-year-old Toni Anne Stagg, of Queensway in Shotton.

The Judge declared a benefit in her case of over £9,500, but ordered her to pay a nominal £1.

A benefit of more than £1.8m was determined in the case of 46-year-old Lisa Tinson, of Osbourne Court in Connah's Quay.

She was ordered to pay back a figure of £1,369.

James Hughes, aged 40 and of Ffordd Cae Llewellyn, Deeside, was found to have had a benefit slightly over £60,000.

He was ordered to pay £1.

Leon Langford, aged 44 and of Kingsley Road in Garden City, was determined to have had a benefit of more than £35,000.

He was ordered to pay £1.

Lee Murray, aged 35 and of Sycamore Road in Waterloo, Liverpool, was determined to have had a benefit of more than £730,000.

He too was ordered to pay £1 and the court imposed a five-year serious crime prevention order.

Keith Furmedge, aged 50 of Elstead Road in Liverpool, was found to have had a benefit of more than £1.8m.

He was ordered to pay £1.

No proceeds of crime application was made in respect of 54-year-old Peter Powell, of Sealand Avenue, Garden City.

However a forfeiture and destruction order was made in respect of several of his items, including phones, sim cards, a tablet and other items.

Forefeiture and destruction orders were made in respect of all of the other defendants, involving multiple phones, memory sticks and other devices, a stun gun and knuckledusters, drugs and more.