Two County Lines drugs who ran a drug network through Kent have been jailed for a combined 15 years after messages to drug users were uncovered.

Dequan Brown, 24, and Ricardo Cain, 23, had been linked to a network between south London, Folkestone and Tunbridge Wells.

This is the moment Dequan Brown was arrested at a flat in Catford

The pair were arrested in 2020 after an investigation by Kent Police's County Lines and Gangs Team found messages offering heroin and crack cocaine being signed off with "Romeo", "Mitch" or "Romeo and Mitch".

Brown, of Catford Hill, south London, was arrested at a property in Catford where officers found a machete, lock knife, body armour and a pistol, £10,000 cash and £26,000 worth of uncut of heroin and crack cocaine.

While he was in custody, analysis of his phone identified regular communication with a number in Folkestone.

This led to officers attending a hotel in The Leas, where Cain was arrested in possession of £1,000-worth of crack cocaine and heroin and £2,000 in cash.

At Canterbury Crown Court last week, Brown was found guilty of being involved in the supply of class A drugs and possessing a firearm - he was jailed for 12 years.

Cain admitted being involved in the supply of Class A drugs and was jailed for three years.

Detective Chief Inspector Matthew Talboys, of the County Lines and Gangs Team, said: "Kent Police knows all too well the knock-on offending that goes hand in hand with county line drug dealing and we will disrupt and shut down these networks at every opportunity.

"The weapons found at the property we raided show the serious criminality we are dealing with. Weapons of this kind can only have been held to intimidate rivals and customers and could easily have led to people being seriously wounded or killed.

"I am pleased the money, drugs and weapons we have seized are no longer in circulation and these two men are now behind bars."