DRUG dealers who left Southport to establish a crack cocaine and heroin dealing den in Burnley have been jailed for more than five years.

Paul Stanmore, 53, and Stephen Rimmer, 45, each claimed they had been urged to establish their base in Arran Street to pay off their own drugs debts, the town’s crown court was told.

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Detectives had been keeping watch on the property when Rimmer left the house in a Renault Megane, the court heard.

And when police moved in, Stanmore was found inside the property, where he attempted to swallow a drugs wrap.

Before his arrest, he was found with eight knotted small bags of white powder which turned out to be heroin. Another collection of small amounts of an off-white substance turned out to be crack cocaine.

Prosecutors say that each of the pair had mobile phones which were riddled with text messages referring to the drugs trade.

But Robert Elias, for Stanmore, said his client had been given a ‘dirty’ phone by those who controlled the defendants and there would have been communications which were nothing to do with them already in the memory.

Mr Elias said Stanmore had been very frank about his role in the operation and was ‘prepared to take his medicine’. The defendant had become a mentor for a drugs charity.

John Archer, for Rimmer, said his client was not responsible for finding the house from which the dealing took place or sourcing the mobile phones.

The court heard Rimmer insisted his role consisted of driving to Liverpool, where someone else would pick up the drugs to deliver back to Burnley.

Stanmore and Rimmer each pleaded guilty to supplying heroin and crack cocaine on dates in March this year. Stanmore was jailed for 36 months and Rimmer for 28 months.

Jailing them, Recorder Simon Medland QC said it was clear that heroin and crack cocaine ruined many people’s lives, including the defendants.

“You played your part in this in ensuring that this terrible trade carries on. You came from Southport to this part of the world to help that happen,” said Mr Recorder Medland.

“There must be a prison sentence for people who involve themselves in dealing in Class A drugs. I accept your comparatively limited roles and the comparatively short time the conspiracy is indicted for.”