A DEESIDE man has been jailed for his role in a drugs operation and for assaulting a man in Shotton.

Joe Roberts, 21, of Farm Road in Connah’s Quay, admitted possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply on March 27.

Roberts was arrested following a raid on an address in Connah's Quay on March 15 when he was found to have cocaine worth £200 and heroin worth £200 in a bag stuffed down his boxer shorts.

Co-defendant Kyle Jeremy, 20, of Armley Road, Anfield, Liverpool, also admitted possessing both drugs with intent to supply with the court hearing how both were involved with the transportation and then dealing of drugs which originated from Liverpool.

Roberts was also sentenced for his involvement in an assault on Rhys Hall at Alexander Street in Shotton on May 11.

Mold Crown Court heard Roberts, who pleaded guilty to the offence in April, was one of a number of men seen running through a car park on King George Street in pursuit of another group of men.

During the chase they ran past Mr Hall, who was with a group of friends, before throwing a bottle at the group and then approaching them with an iron bar asking in which direction the other group had run off in.

The friends were able to run off at this point but Mr Hall stopped and was then hit across the back and hands with the bar before being dragged to his feet and asked: "Where is he staying?"

Mr Hall was then able to escape and ran into a Wetherspoons pub where staff contacted the police.

The court heard two other men, Reece Convery, 20, of Jarrow, Tyne and Wear and David John Woods, 20, of Marsh Lane in Bootle, Merseyside, had both denied the charges. A fourth man had previously pleaded guilty.

Both Convery and Woods, who is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of teenager Matthew Cassidy following a turf war over drugs, will face a trial fixed at Caernarfon Crown Court on September 3.

Sentencing Jeremy to 28 months in custody and Roberts to three-and-a-half years for possession and intent to supply and six months for assault, Judge Rhys Rowlands said: "Once again the courts in North Wales are dealing with the effects of harmful drugs bought in from the North West of England.

"That is the murky world you are both in."