County lines drugs plot foiled after Carlisle rail station arrest

Fiona Barnard (left), David Ball (centre) and Deborah Hunt all admitted their part in the trafficking plot

A county lines drugs plot which saw heroin trafficked from Merseyside to Cumbria was smashed when police found one of the dealers concealing heroin.

David Ball, 38, of Liverpool, was arrested in Carlisle in April last year.

Phone analysis linked him to Fiona Barnard, 57, and Deborah Hunt, 63, both of Carlisle.

At the city's crown court, Ball and Barnard were jailed while Hunt received a suspended prison sentence.

Sentencing for a fourth member of the conspiracy, Christopher Cook, of Briar Bank, Carlisle, was postponed when he failed to attend the hearing.

The court was told Ball, of Aylton Road, Liverpool, made seven trips north before being arrested at Carlisle railway station.

Prosecutor Tim Evans said Ball initially agreed to an X-ray intended to see if he was concealing drugs but then withdrew his consent.

"Ultimately two ounces of heroin were recovered from his anus," he added.

'Carlisle sales end'

Ball - who was known by the nicknames of Sam or Sammy - made trips from Merseyside to Carlisle which coincided with Cook sending out multiple text messages to scores of recipients advertising drugs for sale.

Both Ball and Cook - described as the "Carlisle sales end" of the plot - were offered accommodation firstly by Hunt, 63, and then by Barnard, who transferred cash to Ball.

The court heard detectives painstakingly picked through messages between the co-conspirators, whose offending was committed between early-January and late-April 2022.

Ball was jailed for three years and eight months after admitting conspiracy to supply heroin.

Barnard, of Seatoller Close, Carlisle, admitted the same charge and was jailed for three-and-a-half-years after the court heard drugs with a value of almost £20,000 had been recovered from her home in 2020.

Hunt, of Weardale Road, Carlisle, admitted allowing her premises to be used for drugs supply in March 2022 and was given an eight-month jail term suspended for 18 months.

An arrest warrant was issued for Cook, who had also admitted conspiracy to supply heroin at an earlier hearing.