Nigel Edwards, 24, was arrested with two other men after providing an undercover team with heroin and crack cocaine.Edwards, nicknamed DJ, who used a series of runners to help distribute the class A-drugs, had been targeted in Operation Phoenix in which specialist officers were deployed to rid the streets of drugs and other associated crime from May 2006 to November 2007.Prosecutor James Kellam described how one officer, identified only as Frankie, had approached Edwards about buying some dark (heroin). Edwards offered his phone number and indicated he could supply larger quantities. A runner sitting in an adjacent car then supplied him with a wrap for £10.The city crown court heard of subsequent deals which ended after Frankie told him he wanted to buy a larger amount.Shortly after the transaction in Shirley, officers stopped the car in which he was in and he was arrested with the driver and another passenger. They had £2,000 of heroin between them.Edwards, 24, of Oxford Avenue, Southampton, admitted ten charges of supplying drugs. The court heard he had 28 previous convictions with five for drugs and in 2004 had been jailed for four years in Portsmouth for possessing crack cocaine with intent to supply.
The other vehicle occupants, Ryan Beckford, 26, from London, and Gary Squire, 25, of Kent Street, Northam, both admitted possessing heroin with intent to supply. Beckford was jailed for three and a half years, and Squire received three years.
Mr Kellam described how Frankie approached a drug dealer called A J in St Mary Street and asked if he had any heroin and was directed to the YMCA. There, he met Andrew Wooff who took him to a nearby subway where he bought two wraps for £20.
Wooff, 47, of Derby Road, Southampton, admitted supplying and being concerned in the supply of heroin and received three and a half years.In another Operation Phoenix case, Joseph Adams, 32, of Darwin Road, admitted five charges involving the supply of heroin and crack and was jailed for four and a half years. He was said to have committed 85 previous offences dating back to 1992.
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