Debt 'forced man into drugs op'

A man who ran a cocaine factory from his kitchen in Gloucestershire has been jailed for seven years.

Darren Davies, 23, and from Hardwicke, Gloucester, told Bristol Crown Court he was forced into the operation to settle a bad debt over the sale of a car.

Davies said to pay back the £3,000 he was employed as a runner, collecting and storing cocaine from his home.

Police found a press and bowl used to mix the cocaine and a list of dealers' names in Davies' home.

'Car stopped'

Co-defendents Marcus Summers, 19 and Shane Huntley, 24, were also jailed for their parts in the plan to supply nearly 4kg of cocaine.

The court was told the police operation started after officers stopped a car driven by Summers last June.

Bristol Crown Court was told officers found about 360g of cocaine, valued at £60,000, in small bags, and a large quantity of a "cutting agent" - a substance which is mixed with the drug to bulk it out - in a rucksack in the boot.

Summers was arrested and released on bail but went back to his accomplices on the promise of free cocaine to feed his own habit.

On 3 July 2008 police stopped a car driven at speed by Davies, with Huntley in the front passenger seat.

Officers found a rucksack containing 3.5kg of cocaine, which at the time Gloucestershire Police said was the biggest drugs haul they had made.

Recorder Richard Smith QC agreed that Davies, of Overbrook Road, Hardwicke, near Gloucester, had recruited Huntley and Summers into the operation.

Summers, of Redding Close, Quedgeley, was jailed for five years while Huntley was given an eight-year jail term because of his earlier not guilty plea.