A DRUG-busting police team has been praised by a judge after he sentenced the last of 11 convicted dealers.

Recorder of Newcastle David Hodson this week jailed Carlo Fella, 28, to four-and-a-half years, at Durham Crown Court.

He was the 11th members of a gang peddling heroin in Chester-le-Street which was snared by a long-running police investigation called Operation Cassidy.

Fella's sentence now brings the total jail term for the gang to more than 50 years.

An investigation was launched following five heroin-related deaths in the market town in recent years.

An undercover officer, named only as "Ged", posed as a heroin addict and obtained a supply from a number of dealers in the town between December 1999 and June last year.

Mr Hodson told the court: "I think it is right to draw attention to their good work. The senior officers, the officer in charge and all the others involved should be commended in court for the professional way they dealt with this matter. And, also for the way they brought a number of people to justice."

The judge praised Det Sgt Terry McCabe, Det Sgt Michael Callan, Det Cons Paul Richardson, Peter Walsh, Ewan Clark, Paul Rodgerson, Graeme Shaw and John Simons and PCs Helen Bell and Tony Surtees.