A court has heard how seven men, including four from Cumbria, were involved in plotting to supply illegal drugs.

Police smashed a criminal enterprise which ran for more than eight months last year. It involved class A and B substances being trafficked into the county from elsewhere in the North West.

Officers seized tens of thousands of pounds worth of cocaine, heroin and cannabis as two couriers were arrested on separate dates - on the M6 in south and north Cumbria - as they travelled towards Carlisle.

Evidence was amassed and led to eight people appearing in the city's crown court dock today for the start of a two-day sentencing hearing.

Five men admit conspiring to supply cocaine between January and August, 2016. They are Johnathan O'Neil, 28, of Creighton Avenue; Darren Snowden, 45, of Brookside, Raffles, both Carlisle; Lee Jamieson, 30, of Liverpool; John Patefield, 49, of Ellesmere Port; and Sam Stone, 54, of Darwen, Lancashire.

Stone also admits conspiring to supply heroin and cannabis, while Andrew John Berry, 25, of Bower Street, Carlisle, and Levi Howard, 30, of High Cliff, Barrow-in-Furness, each admit the cannabis crime.

Kathleen Berry, 25, of Brampton Old Road, Carlisle, admits being concerned in the supply of cannabis, on June 23 last year.

Judge Tony Lancaster is due to sentence the defendants tomorrow after hearing mitigation from their respective barristers.