A drug dealer arrested during a special undercover police operation last year was jailed for four years, writes Colin Fenton.

At Oxford Crown Court, George Ward, 33, of Sandfield Road, Headington, Oxford, admitted four charges of supplying heroin to an undercover officer identified only as Tony in October and one of possessing the drug.

Robert Spencer-Barnard, prosecuting, said police mounted Operation Barter for three months last autumn to target drug dealers operating from Bonn Square, Oxford. They arrested 12 people.

Ward, he said, told Tony to be careful, "because the police are everywhere".

Judge Anthony King told Ward, a heroin addict: "You have an appalling record and your life is in a mess. Heroin is rife in Oxford and you are a sufferer and abuser of that drug and you were spreading it among others." He ordered Ward to serve an extra 152 days in prison because he was on licence from jail at the time of his drug dealing.

In the same court Stephen Mason, 44, of Coison Close, Cowley, admitted supplying heroin to Tony and two undercover policewomen identified as Donna and Linda during Operation Barter. He also pleaded guilty to offering to supply the drug to Tony and obtaining property by deception from him by falsely representing that a quantity of citric acid was heroin.

Mason was remanded in custody for sentence following the trials of others arrested in the operation. Several others are due to take place on Friday.

Story date: Monday 21 February

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