FOR two years Gary Chowns dominated the drugs trade in and around Ross-on-Wye.

Now, the dealer who kept up his own cocaine habit with the money he made from heroin is behind bars.

Chowns appeared at Worcester Crown Court on Tuesday and admitted four charges of supplying heroin and two of supplying cannabis and amphetamine.

The 34-year-old from Brampton Road, Ross, also admitted battery of a man who he believed had stolen drugs and cash from his stash while he was on holiday.

Drug debts

During the break Chowns had delegated his business to a deputy, the court heard.

Judge Michael Mott jailed Chowns for five years.

Dele Alakija, defending, said the father-of-two had run up drug debts and had fallen foul of 'big players' on the drug scene.

His partner had been threatened while he was held in custody on remand.

Mr Alakija said he had acted as a go-between in drug deals but was now fed up with his lifestyle and was motivated to change.

Toy egg was hiding place

IT was instinct, a rugby tackle to take the 'target' down as he tried to dump vital evidence.

The tackler was Detective Constable Rick Real one of the undercover team that had spent weeks watching Gary Chowns.

Floored on the drive of his girlfriend's Ross home, Chowns was about to throw a children's toy egg over the fence onto the A40. Inside the egg were 27 wraps of heroin.

The man police called South Herefordshire's 'Mr Big Enough' had been busted. Sold at £10 each, those wraps would earn Chowns around £300 a day, with amphetamine and cannabis offered as optional extras.

Chowns was always quick to let his customers know what their money had bought him. Flaunting cars, motorcycles, top of the range electronics, designer accessories, holidays and cocaine - all on £109 per fortnight in benefits, his only legal source of income.

His illegal source stemmed from a mobile phone network that stretched across Ross and its surrounds - a ring-round for regulars to arrange buys.

Confident to the point of cockiness, Chowns was a 'slick operator' says Detective Sergeant Mel Langford who led Operation Idol.

Chowns' watchers were the six-strong 'pro-active' unit of Herefordshire Division's Inteligence Squad.

Officers swooped in August as Chowns returned from one of his sources.

Along with the heroin, officers searching Chowns car found £275 in a false-bottomed baked bean tin.

Chowns now faces investigations into his assets and if drugs money paid for them, he will not get them back.