A crown court judge warned that those who brought dangerous drugs into North Wales towns to “make a quick buck” would be jailed.

John David Ferguson, 35, of Pemberton Road in Woodchurch, Birkenhead, was found with 71 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine in his sock in Love Lane in Mold, on June 9.

He admitted possessing both class A drugs with intent to supply – which put him in breach of a suspended sentence – and he was jailed for 32 months.

Judge Niclas Parry told him that if people came from the North West of England to small market towns in North Wales to sell some of the most harmful drugs available, in order to make a quick buck, then they would go to prison.

They were class A drugs and he was a street dealer who had a lot of drugs on him ready for sale.

Messages on his mobile phones showed that he “was prolific.”

His situation was aggravated by the fact that he had a terrible criminal record and was in breach of a suspended sentence for burglary of a community centre – but it was conceded that he had no previous convictions for drugs supply.

He had pleaded guilty which would give him maximum credit in sentencing and Judge Parry said he took into account the effect the sentence would have on his children, and his relationship with them.

Prosecuting barrister Paulinus Barnes told Mold Crown Court on Friday that CCTV operators at Mold reported to police their suspicions of males carrying drugs in the town on June 9.

They went to Love Lane and saw the defendant and another man who was suspected of being a drug user.

Ferguson was asked if he had any drugs on him, and he said only what he had just bought.

But a search revealed a clear plastic bag in his sock in which there were seven crack cocaine wraps and 64 heroin wraps.

There was a total of 12.3 grammes of heroin and just under a gram of crack cocaine.

The heroin had a 31 per cent purity.

Two mobile phones were seized and one of them rang continuously during the police search of the defendant.

Police found quite a number of drug-related messages on the phones, most of them incoming.

The suspended prison sentence had been imposed in August after he admitted attempted burglary at Hoylake Community Centre, Wirral.

Defending barrister Dafydd Roberts said his client had a bad record but nothing for drugs supply.

He had used his time on bail since his arrest constructively.

Mr Roberts said: “He tells me that he has rid himself of the drugs which have blighted his life.”

The defendant had also been in work.

But he knew it was an inevitable prison sentence and had brought a bag with him to court.

“He understands what is going to happen,” he said.