A drug gang from Ashford dealing heroin and cocaine in the town have been jailed for more than 30 years.

In total eight people, including two youths, were convicted for their roles and five of the ring were given jail terms.

They were sent to prison for a combined 31 years and 11 months after sentencing took place at Canterbury Crown Court yesterday.

Kent Police launched an investigation into the supply of illegal drugs in Ashford and raided a house in Lynsted Close on June 24.

After plain clothes officers observed the property in Stanhope a search warrant was executed later that day.

As officers were forcing entry into the property, they spotted an object being thrown from an upstairs window towards a neighbouring property.

It was later found this was a black bin bag containing 38 wraps of illegal substances.

During the raid police found heroin and crack cocaine inside the house in several rooms and inside a toilet along with various pieces of equipment and more than £2,000 in cash hidden in a car parked outside.

Also in the red Toyota was a knife which was seized as evidence for the trial.

"Three have come into Ashford from outside the county with the sole intention of committing crime and exploiting our communities." Det Con Lewis Tompsett

Five people from Ashford were arrested and charged as part of the sting.

One had no fixed address and the others were from London and Ilford in Essex.

Junior Chisela,20 and formerly from Palmers Green in north London, was sentenced to eight years for drug offences and two years for possessing a bladed item to run concurrently.

Homeless Bruno Dos-Santos,23, was sentenced to seven years for the drug offences and two years for possessing a bladed item to run concurrently.

Marcus Audain, 22 and formerly from Ilford in Essex, was found guilty of conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine. He was sentenced to seven years.

Ade Bokinni, 25, and Korey Lawrence Marcel, 21, both formerly of Lynsted Close, Ashford, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine.

Bokinni was jailed for five years and three months and Marcel received a sentence of four years and eight months.

A woman admitted allowing her premises to be used for the supply of drugs.

Monica Williams, 19, now of Simon's Avenue in South Ashford, received a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years. She was also handed a four-month curfew order enforced between 11pm and 9am.

A 16-year-old boy and 17-year-old boy, both from Ashford, were given two-year youth rehabilitation orders after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply.

The 16-year-old was also given a four-month electronic curfew requiring him to be indoors between 7pm and 9am.

Det Con Lewis Tompsett, the investigating officer, said after the sentencing: "Three of the people who have been sentenced have come into Ashford from outside the county with the sole intention of committing crime and exploiting our communities.

"Drugs ruin lives and the impact of taking them is not only detrimental to the user – they destroy families, friendships and neighbourhoods.

"This is something that Kent Police cannot tolerate and I welcome the sentences that have been passed by the judge.

"They show that law enforcement is united in keeping offenders like these people off the streets so they cannot cause harm to the members of the public we serve."