A GANG of drug dealers was today beginning a total of 47 years behind bars following a major operation by police to smash the supply of heroin in a quiet North-East town.

But while officers welcomed the lengthy sentences handed down on the gang at Durham Crown Court yesterday, they expressed concern at the length of time it had taken to bring them to justice.

The ten drug dealers jailed yesterday were arrested after inquiries carried out by up to 150 officers under Operation Cassidy in Chester-le-Street, a town which has suffered five heroin-related deaths in recent years.

Although several gang members pleaded guilty last October to supplying the class-A controlled drug, it has taken ten months to sentence them.

The most severe sentences saw three defendants jailed for seven years and two given six years.

Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Inspector Andy Reddick, of Durham Police, said he was "over the moon" about the length of the jail terms handed out.

He said: "Following drugs-related deaths in Chester-le-Street, these sentences reflect the seriousness of supplying heroin.

"We are not complacent enough to believe this will stop the supply of heroin altogether in the town. However, GPs have told us that heroin is so hard to come by that they are telling people it is the right time to give up."

Judge Denis Orde told the defendants: "You have bought more degradation and misery, and no doubt illness, to the young people of Chester-le-Street than any others in recent years."

The Northern Echo's Rat on a Rat Campaign, launched in conjunction with County Durham Police and the Durham Agency Against Crime, aims to encourage people in drug-blighted communities to inform police of dealers in their midst.

Det Insp Reddick said, however: "It is disappointing, and a reflection on the far-too-complex judicial system, that it has taken until now to get these people sentenced.

"A number of them pleaded guilty in October last year. Since then, there have been a number of adjournments we felt were unnecessary. They were only going to keep them on remand which eats into their sentence. This needs looking at."

A spokesman for the Lord Chancellor's Office, which runs the crown court system, said the delay in sentencing was primarily down to the difficulty in agreeing adjournment dates between 11 separate barristers.