FIVE drug dealers have been jailed after officers found cocaine with a street value of more than £50,000 in safe houses, cemeteries and even hidden inside a sock.
Operation Mithras culminated in four men from Prudhoe and one from Hexham being charged with conspiracy to supply the drug.
Ringleader David Walton, 39, of Park Lane, Prudhoe, was jailed for six years and nine months at Newcastle Crown Court.
Marc Andrew McKay, 37, of Chirdon Crescent, Hexham, was jailed for four years and nine months after also admitting conspiracy to supply.
Shaun Sharkey, 29, of Tulip Street, and Sean Barry Rutherford, 28, of Ovington View, both Prudhoe, admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine and were locked up for 22 months.
And Timothy Alsop, 43, of North View, Prudhoe, was jailed for three-and-a-half years after being convicted of his part in the conspiracy following a trial.
The court heard that police surveillance showed Walton and other gang members organising and dropping off drugs on numerous occasions.
Walton met customers in car parks, on the street and even in cemeteries and country parks.
Operation Mithras was set up in September 2011. Walton used a number of safe houses and “stashes” for storing cocaine, including a £7,000 haul stored in a plastic bag in a sock in the grounds of Prudhoe Hospital.
He also used a derelict chalet in Ovington, on the banks of the Tyne.
Police raided the isolated chalet and uncovered £40,000 worth of cocaine as well as scales, a face mask and polythene sandwich bags.
The game was up in February 2012 when a police watch on Prudhoe Cemetery car park revealed Walton handing McKay two bags of cocaine. McKay was arrested after a chase in which he discarded the drugs.
Walton, Sharkey and Rutherford were then confronted by officers as they left a property in Mickley, a small hamlet near Prudhoe and Stocksfield, rented by Alsop.
Walton was found to be in possession of 258 “street deals” of cocaine. Alsop was also arrested later when he arrived home.
Det Insp Paul Knox, of Northumbria Police, said after the case: “This was an organised criminal group with Walton as the central figure, co-ordinating dealing in Prudhoe and surrounding areas.
“The supply of illegal drugs is closely linked to organised crime and we’re committed to tackling the supply chain into our communities.
“This operation took a significant amount of drugs off the streets, as well as seeing key individuals taken off the streets for a considerable period of time.
“Drug dealers are in it for the money and we will continue to target them and suffocate their ability to operate in our neighbourhoods.”
Northumberland Area Command Chief Inspector David Felton said: “The misery caused to individuals and communities by drugs is well-known and we will not tolerate those involved in this evil trade.”
