A gang of Yarmouth drug dealers who peddled heroin and crack cocaine were last night starting jail sentences totalling 18 and a half years following a crackdown by Norfolk police.

A gang of Yarmouth drug dealers who peddled heroin and crack cocaine were last night starting jail sentences totalling 18 and a half years following a crackdown by Norfolk police.

The gang of two women and four men were arrested along with other dealers following a long-running investigation last summer by Norfolk police.

The six were all caught after drugs were sold to an undercover police officer, Norwich Crown Court heard.

One of the defendants, Jeanette Wise, 44, allowed her home in Yarmouth to be used as a base for drug dealing and was described

as the “hub” for local drug users.

Lori Tucker, prosecuting, said: “She was the hub for local drug use. She allowed her premises to be used for the supply of drugs.”

Wise also supplied heroin to the undercover officer and was said to have an “extensive knowledge” of the local drug network.

Wise, of Victoria Road, Yarmouth admitted being concerned in the supply of class A drugs and was

jailed for four years.

Kylie Milne, 27, of King Street, Yarmouth, admitted two offences of supplying cocaine and was jailed for three and half years.

Paul Lawrence , 47, of no fixed address, who admitted being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs, was jailed for four years, and Matthew Woods, 28, of Deneside, Yarmouth was jailed for two and half years for supplying heroin to the undercover officer on four

occasions.

Simon Fordham who supplied the undercover officer with heroin, was jailed for two and half years, and Heider Ribeiro, 35, who supplied heroin and crack cocaine worth �20 on one occasion to the undercover officer, was jailed for two years.

Sentencing them Judge Simon Barham warned the defendants: “Those who are prepared to be involved in the supply of Class A drugs, however small their role, will go to prison. The public will expect it and defendants must understand it.”

Rebecca Wastall, for Wise, said “She is a victim of her own drug habit.”

She said Wise allowed her premises to be used for a share of the drugs to feed her own habit.

She said while in prison Wise had been dealing with her drug addiction and on her release wanted to move away from Yarmouth.

Katharine Moore, for Milne, said she had a long-term drug problem and became involved because of a drug debt she owed.

Ian James, for Lawrence, said he deserved credit for his guilty plea, and Andrew Oliver, for Woods, said that he had become addicted to alcohol and drugs after a break-up in his long-term relationship: “He was not high up

in the chain. His profit was being able to take a small amount of heroin out of the bag he supplied.”

Danielle O'Donnell, for Fordham, said that he was a low-level dealer and had supplied the officer after being approached.

Michael Clare, for Ribeiro, said that he was not selling the drugs for profit and had supplied them on one occasion to the undercover officer. “It was a one off.”