A judge highlighted how the Liverpool drugs trade has fuelled crime in Cumbria as he handed down 30 years of jail to five criminals who plotted to flood the county's streets with drugs from Merseyside.

The drug-running operation was uncovered when police intercepted a car on the M6 near Penrith driven by 52-year-old Shaun Pattie.

Hidden inside his Carlisle bound Renault the police officers found a heroin consignment of unusually high purity, which if divided up into typical street deals would have been worth £37,500, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

Pattie, of Botcherby Avenue, Botcherby, Carlisle, admitted conspiring to supply cocaine, heroin, Ectasy, and cannabis.

He was jailed for seven years and four months. The biggest sentence – 10 years and four months - was handed down to his fellow conspirator, 30-year-old Kevin Laidlaw, who admitted identical charges.

Judge Peter Davies said he must have made a significant amount of money from the five months drugs conspiracy.

Leah Kennedy, 21, of Merith Avenue, Botcherby, who admitted the same conspiracy charges with the exception of heroin but did admit supplying that drug, was jailed for six years.

Nineteen-year-old Andrew Stevenson, who had boasted of selling Ecstasy and amphetamine at the Kendal calling music festival, got four years.

The teenager, of Argyll Drive, Harraby, Carlisle, admitted conspiring to supply cocaine, Ecstasy, and cannabis and offering to supply Ecstasy.

Daniel Weaver, of Sewell Road, Carlisle, was jailed for two years after he admitted conspiring to supply cannabis and two counts of offering to supply amphetamine.

Prosecutor Kim Whittlestone said the plot was smashed when police stopped Pattie's car as he drove north on the M6 on September 27 last year.

The defendant – known by his associates as “Fatha Pat” - was returning from Liverpool, having collected a 125g haul of 55 per cent pure heroin.

The journey was one of 24 such trips to Merseyside, made the police believe by the defendant – at times in the company of Kennedy – in order to collect drugs between June and September.

If similar amounts of heroin were transported on each occasion, said the barrister, as much as three kilos of drug may have been transported.

At his Carlisle home, police found a debtors' list with 28 names on it, as well as other drug dealing paraphernalia.

Laidlaw and Pattie were involved in organising and delivering the class A drugs being brought into Carlisle from Liverpool. Kennedy organised dealing and recruited other people to help sell the drugs.

She was said to have threatened drug users over their debts.

The defendants Weaver and 22-year-old Joshua Oruche provided the Liverpool connection, said Miss Whittlestone, the men together organising the supply of cannabis from Liverpool for sale on the streets of Carlisle.

Kennedy was in debt to Oruche.

Miss Whittlestone added: “During the period of the conspiracy there were over 900 text messages between the Kennedy and Laidlaw phones. All messages relate to the supply of drugs.”

Mark Shepherd, for Pattie, said that while in prison his client had become a drugs and alcohol mentor for fellow prisoners. "He's not someone who had evidence of a lavish lifestyle," added the lawyer.

John Smith, for Kennedy, said she had lived through a troubled youth and had used cannabis since being a teenager. "She became more and more involved and towards the end she was clearly being threatened by others,” said Mr Smith.

"Threats were made against her and against her family. She has now become free of drugs and intends to move away."

Paul Tweddle, for Stevenson, said his client was a naive young man who developed a £250 a week cocaine habit.

"His habit was very much out of control," said the lawyer. "He'd accrued various debts - and was the sort of person that would readily be recruited for this sort of work."

Neil Gunn, for Weaver, said his client had a long-standing problem with cannabis and that his time in prison had had a salutary effect on him. "He is now drug free," added the lawyer.

Jonathan Harley, for Laidlaw, from Chay Blyth Place, Hawick, said the defendant was in the middle of the drugs supply chain and never went to Liverpool. Before getting involved in the conspiracy he had run his own car dealership.

Judge Davies said: "From June to October of 2016, Class A and class B drugs were supplied from Merseyside to Carlisle - heroin, cocaine, Ecstasy, and cannabis were distributed by road on at least 24 occasions. Demand from the streets was high and it was satisfied in significant quantities."

The judge said it was impossible know how much of the drugs were transported but the trade was constant and thousands of pounds went to dealers.

He said Laidlaw had a leading role in the conspiracy and Pattie and Kennedy were both his trusted lieutenants.

Dealers who sold drugs to innocent teenagers were a blight on music festivals such as Kendal Calling, said the judge, referring to Stevenson.

Referring to the drug trade's impact on Cumbria, Judge Davies said: “There is more regular and frequent control of drug users by drug traffickers. There is more violence and indebtedness in this community: people from Liverpool are coming to reside in Cumbria, taking greater control of the trade and enforcing the collection of debts.

“It creates and causes greater crime.”

Oruche, of Gilbert Street, Liverpool, who admitted conspiring to supply cannabis and heroin, and offering to supply heroin, will be sentenced at a later date.