FOUR members of a gang who plotted to supply drugs in Flintshire have been locked up.

Lawton Griffiths, 21, of Ryecote, Kirkby, Liverpool, was jailed for three years and seven months.

Helen Deponeo, 51, from Holywell but bailed to live in Brookside Crescent, Northop Hall, was jailed for three years. She was said to be free of drugs now.

James Halewood, 20, of Sennen Road, Kirkby, was sent to custody for two years and seven months.

And a boy of 17 from Liverpool received a 12-month detention and training order.

All pleaded guilty to involvement in a conspiracy apart from Deponeo who was convicted by a jury.

Caernarfon Crown Court heard there were three incidents. In April last year a police officer at Mold was looking for a Peugeot car and saw Deponeo with two men in the back of the vehicle.

Prosecutor David Mainstone said Griffiths and the second man ran away. Griffiths was caught and had 28 packages of crack cocaine and heroin worth £280 and further bags valued at £230 were recovered at Wrexham police station.

Deponeo’s flat was searched and drugs worth £300 discovered.

Mr Mainstone said in July police found the boy at Deponeo’s home. Heroin and crack cocaine valued at £1,320 was seized.

Then in August police were looking for a taxi near Mold and Halewood fled from it into a field. Drugs valued at £1,820 were found by an officer.

Griffiths’s barrister, John Rowan, said he had been abusing cannabis at the time and fell into debt. He decided to become a street dealer of drugs.

Michael Scholes, defending, said the case was a “significant personal tragedy” for Deponeo, a mother who had been a drug addict.

Halewood’s lawyer said he now worked for a paving firm and was off cannabis.

Julian Nutter, defending him, said the conspiracy was run in Liverpool and Halewood had been “exploited.”

Judge Niclas Parry said they were part of an organised crime group, based mainly in Liverpool, operating along so-called “county lines”. The drugs would inevitably cause misery, criminality and harm health.

The boy had made six deliveries of drugs worth nearly £5,000 in all.

Judge Parry told the defendants: "You were playing a role under direction of others. You were being exploited.”

The judge said Deponeo had been convicted in the face of “overwhelming” evidence. Her house was the “shop”.