The head of a drugs gang, which sold heroin and crack cocaine, has become the final member of his network to be jailed.

Michael Bedford ran the so-called 'B' Line, which made around 60 deals a day in Dover before its members were among 36 people arrested in dawn drugs raids last February.

He admitted conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin and was jailed for eight-and-a-half years at Canterbury Crown Court yesterday.

Bedford, 30, formerly of Alexandra Place, Dover, is the 12th person connected to the 'B' Line to be jailed, with the total sentences given to the group now exceeding 50 years.

In 2019 Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate learned that drug users in the town were buying heroin and crack cocaine through phone numbers saved only as 'B'.

Officers carried out a warrant at a house in Folkestone Road on January 23 last year and seized a phone.

This contained videos of the group's two main stockists packaging up drugs for street dealers to sell on.

Further information gathering led to the identification of the boss of the network, Michael Bedford, who was known as 'B'.

Bedford was in charge of two stockists, who moved drugs on to street dealers to sell, and call handlers, who exchanged messages with users.

It is estimated that the 'B' Line supplied nearly 5kg of heroin and crack cocaine, worth around £300,000, to drug users in Dover between June 2019 and last February.

Bedford, who had been serving a prison term for part of the period in which the group operated, was arrested in Folkestone on Wednesday, March 4, last year.

DC Alan Poulton, one of Kent Police's investigating officers, said: "This long-running and thorough investigation peeled away every level of this drug dealing network, from the street dealers, marketers and stockists, right up to Bedford.

"I am pleased with the number of lengthy sentences secured and hope that the number of people taken out of circulation will rid Dover of those who prey on the vulnerable.

"'Kent Police are determined to make the county a no-go area for drug dealing networks like this one, sparing residents the associated crime and anti-social behaviour."

Since the police operation in Dover in February a total of 40 drug dealers have been convicted of or admitted offences, with 27 now serving prison sentences.

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