A drug dealer has been jailed after police caught him pedalling around Exeter as he delivered heroin and crack cocaine to addicts.
Paul Cunningham was trapped by a police sting operation in which under cover officers posed as drug users and arranged to have wraps delivered to an alleyway off Monks Road.
He acted as a runner for a wider drugs conspiracy which used a phone which was answered with the code word CJ and run from a house in Chaucer Grove.
He was supplied with his drugs by a higher level dealer called Mark Foggin who died while the case was awaiting trial, Exeter Crown Court was told.
Cunningham is an ex convict who had overcome his drug problems with the help of the Chawleigh based Amber Project but drifted back into addiction after moving to Exeter.
He started dealing after being offered a job by 52-year-old Foggin as his runner.
Cunningham, aged 31, of Whipton Village Road, Exeter, admitted two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs and was jailed for three years by Judge Phillip Wassall.
He told him:"You have criminal experience and were very street wise and would have known full well what you were engaging in. You were receiving significant rewards in terms of feeding your substantial habit."
Mr Nigel Wraith, prosecuting, said an undercover police operation was launched in the summer to break up a drugs gang known as CJ which was operated out of Foggin's home in Chaucer Grove, Exeter.
Cunningham delivered drugs by bicycle in exchange for being supplied with heroin for his own use and was observed cycling from the house to nearby alleyways off Monks Road.
Mr Wraith said:"Officers arranged through the CJ phone to buy drugs and they waited their turn to be served with two other males before them in one of the three occasions.
"They bought wraps of heroin and crack cocaine from Cunningham, who was later arrested and found to have five wraps in his mouth."
Foggin's house was searched and 44 wraps found along with £1,000 cash, which was seized and some of which was used to pay for his funeral after he died. A further £150 was forfeited.
Neighbours complained to police that men would come and go from the address up to 30 times a day, causing upset to other residents.
Mr Piers Norsworthy, defending, said Cunningham had previously served a jail term for robbery and both he and his partner had become addicted to heroin and crack after his release in 2011.
He said he agreed to act as runner in exchange for £60 worth of drugs a day but had no further role in the conspiracy. He has now come off heroin while in jail, where he has enhanced status and is working as a cleaner.
