A three-year police operation to crack the supply of heroin into a North-East town ended yesterday with the jailing of one of the key traders.

Trainee scaffolder Andrew David Donohue was jailed for three years after Durham Crown Court heard he had sold a £10 wrap of heroin to a police officer in Shildon, County Durham.

The 22-year-old is the 11th person convicted under Operation Bullseye, set up in 1998 to break two groups of dealers in Bishop Auckland.

When Donohue's home in Linburn Drive was raided, police found six grams of heroin, and on Monday he pleaded guilty to supplying class A drugs and possession of a class A drug with intent to supply.

Returning for sentence yesterday, his barrister, David Rowlands, said Donohue merely sold to fund his own drug taking.

But jailing him, Judge Denis Orde told Donohue: "It's clear you were part of an organised line of supply, very much part of the drugs scene in Bishop Auckland at that time."

Nine other men and a woman have been jailed for between 15 months and four years.

The pushers, who are thought to have got their supplies from Teesside, operated from addresses in St Cuthbert's Walk, South Church, and on the Woodhouse Close estate.

Eventually, at the beginning of December 1999, police had enough evidence and more than 50 officers swooped on a dozen council houses to smash the network.

Detective Inspector Ted Edgar said yesterday: "We don't claim that the problem ever totally went away, but for a good period afterwards the supply of heroin in the area was reduced."

l If you have information on drug misuse, contact Bishop Auckland CID, on (01388) 603566, or telephone Crimestoppers, on 0800 555111.