A shopkeeper has been jailed for ten-and-a-half years after a judge described him as the ringleader of a drug dealing gang around Banbury.

Mark Cookson, who ran the alternative gift Black Rose shop in Church Lane, Banbury, admitted conspiracy to supply class A and B drugs, conspiracy to produce cannabis, cigarette smuggling, and possessing an unlicensed shotgun.

Cookson, 32, of Bulls Lane, Kings Sutton, was arrested with others in raids last July.

Eight other men from Daventry and Brackley were jailed for periods ranging from two-and-a-half years to nine years.

Leicester Crown Court heard that investigations started when undercover police were sold drugs in Brackley.

The court was told that Cookson and his business partner Stephen Ryan built an underground farming system in cellars beneath town centre properties in Daventry for the cultivation of cannabis with an output capability of about £400,000 a year.

After the case, Chief Insp John Jones of Northants Police, said:"The case began with a limited investigation into drug supply and as the investigation progressed, police uncovered connections between drug dealers that led them to liaise with Thames Valley Police, who were at that time carrying out Operation Veterano into drug dealing in north Oxfordshire."