Simon Jenkins jailed for six years at Teesside Crown Court ,Mark Leighton was locked up for four years

Simon Jenkins and Mark Leighton as key players in "the distribution of misery" after handling almost two thirds of a kilo of the class A drug.Jenkins, 26, of Selby Grove, Hartlepool, was jailed for six years at Teesside Crown Court, after a jury found him guilty of possessing a class A drug with intent to supply.Leighton, 44, pleaded guilty to a similar offence and was locked up for four years.Recorder Simon Wood said both were "relatively high in the chain of command".He said: "Even if it was as labourers or foot soldiers, your part in that chain is important, as you were both close to a significant dealing operation."You have become an essential means in that process of distribution of misery."The cocaine, which had a street value of between £34,000 and £43,000, was found after police searched Leighton's flat in Thackeray Road, Rift House, Hartlepool, on September 14 last year.They found 645 grams of the drug stored in packets and containers around the flat – some of it wrapped in lottery tickets.A set of digital scales and a chemical to mix with the cocaine were also seized along with a "dealer list" of names and numbers found in a kitchen drawer.Joanne Kidd, prosecuting, said Jenkins was sitting in the living room which was being used as a "work station" where the cocaine was being cut, mixed and bagged up ready for sale.Paul Cleasby, mitigating for Leighton, said he had been pressured into storing the drug for people higher up the network, who had access to his flat.He added that Leighton told police it was "more than my life is worth" to name them. Mr Cleasby said: "It wasn't his enterprise, he didn't profit to a significant extent."He was financially vulnerable at the time and these people, who are cold and calculating enough to profiteer in this industry, use people like Mark Leighton."Jenkins, who started taking cannabis at 13, was earlier convicted by a jury after his trial heard how his fingerprints were found on the cocaine.He had insisted he had merely handled the drugs on discovering them in the flat.Robin Denny, defending Jenkins, said: "Obviously the amount is considerable but he was a labourer so to speak.

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