APPARATUS from a drugs factory was put on display by police yesterday - as the equipment's owners were starting life behind bars.

Brian Clarke - also known as Seaman - was sentenced to six years and his accomplice, Peter Smith, to four years for conspiracy to supply controlled drugs, when they appeared before Teesside Crown Court last Friday.

When they were arrested by detectives during a raid on a house in Urswick Close, Grove Hill, Middlesbrough, in January, police recovered a ten-tonne hydraulic press, scales, blender and a quarter of a kilo of cocaine and mixing agents, together with a mould to re-press the cocaine.

"This was an excellent result for Cleveland Police,'' said Detective Inspector Derek Carter, of the force's organised crime unit.

"Clarke had been a target criminal for a number of years and his imprisonment will undoubtedly benefit the community."

Generally, cocaine is imported into the country in block form, in half-kilo or kilo blocks.

Det Insp Carter said: "Drug dealers try to increase their profit by breaking up blocks and mixing it with cutting agents, reblocking it and selling it on to other drug traffickers as directly imported cocaine.

"In this particular instance, the street value of the cocaine was around £12,500, which would have turned into a street value of £25,000 had the drug dealers not been foiled."