by Julia Roberts

Eight people, including a pensioner, involved in the commercial supply of heroin and crack cocaine in the Medway towns were sentenced to a total of almost 30 years today Monday.

The conspirators were arrested following a police surveillance operation in Strood earlier this year.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the class A drugs were distributed by a number of runners, themselves often drug-users who were then recruited into the supply network known in the area as "Brazilian" or "Tom".

Deals were concentrated in Northcote Road, Cedar Road and Hancock Road and exchanges took place in outside areas, such as parks and alleyways.

Passing sentence Judge Philip Statman said drugs were the "biggest, single social cancer" in the Medway towns.

A mobile phone ending in the number 584 was the main drugs line used by customers to arrange deals.

In one 137-day billing period 33,301 calls were made to the number and 25,502 from it.

Ashley Morris, 21, Billy Barnes, 28, Lisa Harper, 35, Lee Swift, 32, Denise Smith, 57, Christopher Hawkins, 65, and Michael Spreadbury, 20, all admitted two charges of conspiracy to supply class A drugs between May 2009 and March 2010.

Kirsty Powell, 21, pleaded guilty to one offence of supplying crack cocaine. The court heard that at the time she was subject to a 12-month community order for supplying cocaine to undercover cops.

Ironically, Judge Statman had imposed the order and Powell was regularly appearing before him last year for progress reviews.

A 17-year-old from south-east London, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, also admitted two charges of possessing class A drugs with intent to supply.

Both he and Powell denied involvement in the conspiracy itself and the charges were left on file.

Morris, of Humber Crescent, Strood, was jailed for six-and-a-half years.

Judge Statman said his role "right at the top" of the conspiracy warranted an exemplary sentence.

Barnes, of Cedar Road, Strood, was jailed for four-and-a-half years. Swift and Harper, who lived together in Hancock Close, Strood, were sentenced to four years and three years three months respectively.

Smith, of London Road, Strood, cried as she was jailed for three years. Hawkins, a Falklands War veteran of Hughes Drive, Wainscott, was sentenced to 21 months.

Spreadbury, of Cedar Road, Strood, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in a young offenders' institution.

Powell, of Aspen Green, Erith, was jailed for 27 months plus 12 months consecutive for breach of the community order. The judge told her she was "manipulative and devious".

The teenager was made subject to an 18-month youth rehabilitation order with a three-month electronically-tagged curfew and six months Intensive Surveillance and Support attachment.

The prosecution offered no evidence against a tenth defendant, 18-year-old Harold Muzeremwi, of Waterhead Close, Erith, at an earlier hearing.