A DEALER tossed his stash into a canal as he fled police, a court heard, but the £1,000 bag of drugs rose from the depths and floated.

Jurors were told that police officers had to enlist a dutiful boater to help "fish out" the suspected bag of crack and heroine using a bamboo stick.

Mitchell Bayliss, 23, of Burnaby Road, Coventry, and Jamie Quinn, 23, of no fixed abode, are both on trial at Oxford Crown Court.

They deny two counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs - cocaine and heroin.

Quinn denies a further count of possessing criminal property by having £310 in cash, which prosecutors say was the proceeds of crime.

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Outlining the case before a jury panel of eight women and four men today prosecutor Geoffrey Porter said two plain clothed police officers first spotted the two men on the afternoon of May 1.

They were at the canal close to Oxford rail station and the Isis Lock.

Jurors were told that as soon as the officers said they were with the police one of the men - Bayliss - ran off along the towpath.

Mr Porter said that during the chase Bayliss 'threw a bag into the canal' and that it was later revealed to contain about £1,000 worth of drugs.

He told jurors that the prosecution's case was this was a 'county lines' operation and speaking of the seized bag he said that inside was numerous wraps of cocaine and heroin.

Those drugs, jurors were told, were broken down into 74 wraps of cocaine and 25 of heroin and Quinn was found to have £310 cash on him.

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A mobile phone that was taken, prosecutors claim, also featured messages 'advertising' the supply of drugs.

Recalling the incident from the witness box the officer who gave chase, Matthew Capper, said he first noticed the men 'lingering' in the area and looking 'a little bit shifty.'

Speaking of the short pursuit he said that Bayliss ran towards a dead end and he was holding a bag in his right hand.

He described the item as a 'small, black fabric bag' and he said that Bayliss threw it into the canal 'about three metres'.

He said: "It bobbed back up to the top of the water. When I have grabbed him to make sure he is not going anywhere I said 'that's not what you expected was it.'

"He said words to the effect of 'I don't know what you're on about, that's not my bag.'"

The officer went on to say that another man on a canal boat then helped to fish out the floating bag of drugs using a bamboo stick.

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Both Quinn and Bayliss were then arrested and taken in a police van to Abingdon police station.

During cross examination it was put to the police officer that he was 'mistaken' about what he saw and that Bayliss was not carrying any bag and threw nothing into the canal, an assertion he denied.

The trial continues.