PEOPLE who protect drug barons by storing drugs for them can expect heavy jail sentences, a judge said yesterday.

The warning came as a 24-year-old man was jailed for five-and-a-half years after a police raid uncovered £72,000 of cocaine at his Darlington home.

Neil Beck said he was forced to store the cocaine after he was threatened by a drug dealer, whom he declined to name.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said officers found nearly 1.5kg of the Class A drug in compressed powder form in the house and garage in Quaker Lane, in the town's West End.

In a rear bedroom, they found a mobile telephone box holding 82.2 grammes of cocaine, and a shoebox containing 119g of cocaine in a smaller bedroom.

A Morrisons supermarket bag with 748g of cocaine and a block of 496g of compressed cocaine was also found in the garage.

The total find had a street value of £72,000.

There was also a broken stungun in a chest of drawers, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Mr Dodds said: "These drugs were found in a variety of locations, not in one, as though they had been dropped off, and he had the opportunity to say in interview that there had been threats."

Beck had previous convictions dating from 2002, including affray, actual bodily harm, assault and drink-driving, but none for drug offences.

Dan Cordey, in mitigation, said Beck had acted under duress and was "out of his league".

He said: "There were other options open to him, such as going to the police or dealing with this in another way, but he submits through me that he did feel genuinely under threat and he got himself involved in storing cocaine under threats."

Beck pleaded guilty last December to possession with intent to supply 1,790g of cocaine and possession of a prohibited weapon.

Judge Peter Bowers said Beck was an integral part of a large drug-trafficking operation, and said: "The courts cannot tolerate co-operation with people who are called drug barons because the more protection they get, the more the public are exposed to drugs."