Four members of an organised crime gang have been jailed following the discovery of a vast firearms and drugs operation based in Wigan. Police uncovered an industrial-scale tablet manufacturing set-up capable of producing tens of thousands of counterfeit drugs per hour, alongside viable firearms and ammunition. The investigation was triggered by intelligence from encrypted messaging platforms used by criminals. Millions of tablets were seized from properties, a shipping container, and a hired van, with estimated street values ranging from £57.6 million to £288 million. Officers also uncovered efforts to disguise the criminal enterprise behind a fake business selling tablet machinery. Detectives said the combination of mass drug production and access to deadly weapons posed a serious threat to communities locally and nationally. The sentences, totalling nearly fifty years, underline the determination of law enforcement to disrupt organised crime networks and protect the public from exploitation, addiction and violence.