A BARROW man has been locked up for his role in a major drug trafficking plot involving six other men.

Levi Howard, 30, of High Cliff, was said to have acted as a cannabis "middle man" in a conspiracy which ran for several months last year. This saw vast quantities of class A and B drugs diverted into Cumbria from East Lancashire and Merseyside.

Carlisle Crown Court heard how Liverpool-based Lee Jamieson, 30, played a lead role. From his home city, he sourced high purity cocaine and controlled couriers who transported illegal drugs into Cumbria.

But the plot was smashed by police who gathered a wealth of evidence, including damning mobile phone data, as they brought gang members to book.

Crucially, on two separate dates last summer, officers detained two couriers as they transported large quantities of illicit substances north on the M6.

Last June, 54-year-old Sam Stone, of Darwen, Lancashire, was pulled over in South Cumbria. Cocaine, heroin and cannabis - potentially worth of around £60,000 - was found in his possession.

A month later, John Patefield, 49, of Ellesmere Port, was stopped with a £76,000 high purity cocaine haul.

It emerged Patefield and Jamieson had been in regular contact with Howard, who later confessed to "acquiring and paying for cannabis, for onward supply".

He admitted conspiring to supply the class B drug, and received a two-year jail term at the crown court today (FRI).

Howard was said to have close ties with three Carlisle criminals.

Johnathan O'Neil, 28, of Creighton Avenue, and Darren Snowden, 45, of Brookside, Raffles, admitted conspiring to supply cocaine. O'Neil was jailed for seven-and-a-half years, and Snowden for two years and eight months.

Andrew Berry, 25, of Bower Street, Carlisle, also admitted the cannabis crime, and was jailed for two years.

Patefield was jailed for four years and eight months, and Stone had 18 months added to a three-year sentence he is already serving.

Jamieson received a seven-and-a-half-year stretch.

"I am sure that over the period of the conspiracy the underlying intention was to make significant sums of money," Judge Tony Lancaster concluded.