TWO men who ran a drugs operation from a pigeon loft were jailed yesterday.

Police had been trailing Malcolm Inman, 39, for months before he led them to the loft on allotments on Teesside, said prosecutor Peter Sabiston.

Inman and Kirk Wharton, 32, loaded his Land Rover with cannabis resin from their stocks in the loft, at Port Clarence.

Then they drove off towards Rushyford, where they were caught in a police roadblock, Teesside Crown Court heard.

A search of the loft unearthed 64 bars of cannabis resin, with more in their homes worth a total of £94,688, as well as £62,945 in cash at Wharton's home.

Inman had a lavish lifestyle, wining and dining his mistress and buying her jewellery and holidays. He told her that he had a plant hire business, said Judge John Walford.

Wharton progressed from supplying bootleg cigarettes to drugs under pressure from people "more greedy, lazy and unscrupulous than himself", said the judge.

Wharton, of Wolviston Road, Billingham, who admitted possession of drugs with intent to supply them in March 1999, was jailed for two years and three months.

Inman, of Oak Avenue, Sherburn Road Estate, Durham City, was found guilty by a jury and jailed for three years and nine months.

Wharton's girlfriend, Deborah Carlsson, 40, who lived with him, admitted possession of cannabis for personal use and was given a two-year conditional discharge