A DRUGS gang which supplied heroin in a former mining community was cracked by an undercover police officer.

His work resulted in six members of the ring being jailed yesterday, with a seventh warned to expect a prison sentence when he returns to be sentenced on Friday.

Durham Crown Court heard that concern grew over the amount of heroin being used in the Easington area of east Durham late last year.

Posing as an addict, the officer infiltrated the gang, being referred for his supply from one member of the ring to another.

Roger Elsey, prosecuting, said the officer regularly bought £10 wraps of the drug in two local pubs and in a car park outside a carpet shop.

Mr Elsey said Jeremy Saul was the organiser, buying his supply in Middlesbrough, with Matthew Styles, William Hunter, Malcolm Kennedy and John Owens acting as the "street dealers".

Winston Garside and Jason Hardy were described as go-betweens, while Kennedy's brother, David, was involved purely to buy drugs for his sibling.

The court heard that all but David Kennedy were heroin users or addicts, who became involved to help secure their own free supplies.

All eight admitted supplying, or being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug.

Saul, 32, of West View, Easington Village, was jailed for five years. Styles, 25, of Boyd Street, Malcolm Kennedy, 22, of West Crescent, and 20-year-old Owens, of Raby Avenue, all Easington Colliery, were each given three-year sentences.

Hunter, 25, of The Mill, Easington Village, was jailed for two-and-a-half years, and 26-year-old Garside, of St Mary's Close, Peterlee, received a two-year sentence.

David Kennedy, 20, of Lancaster Hill, Peterlee, was given a 12-month community rehabilitation order, and sentence on 30-year-old Hardy, of Station Road, Easington Colliery, was adjourned for a week for preparation of probation service reports.

Judge Esmund Faulks said: "Heroin brings misery, degradation and, sometimes, death to those who take it. It's made seven of you pretty miserable and when you pass this drug on, it degrades others."

He ordered confiscation of a number of mobile phones, a small amount of heroin, plus cash seized by police during raids on the homes of ring members.