DRUG dealing teens in Penhill and Pinehurst led police to a pair of Bristol suppliers selling a kilo of cocaine and week.

Ashley Hunt and Nicholas Bullock, both 31, were locked up for more than 15 years in May for conspiracy to supply cocaine – with their jail sentences now able to be reported after a sixth man was found not guilty of involvement in the conspiracy.

Two other dealers, Jack Young and Kyle Rigley, who are said to have been the main movers at the Swindon end, are due before Swindon Crown Court later this month for a hearing before a judge to establish their level of culpability in the drugs trade.

Det Sgt Neil Hilton of Wiltshire Police’s serious organised crime department was the officer in charge of bringing the case to court. He also led the surveillance teams that followed Young and Rigley as they met with Bristol supplier Bullock in October 2018.

He told the Adver: “This investigation came from – as they always do although it’s a cliché – members of the public.

“We had reports in relation to street level supply of crack cocaine and heroin by teenagers in the Pinehrust and Penhill areas.

“When we hear about children involved in the supply of drugs that obviously triggers a lot of interest from the senior management. The job came into my team off the back of that.

“We quickly established a lot of these drugs lines were linking into Jack Young. He became a focus of our investigation. He led us to Kyle Rigley. They led us to the Bristol end.”

His detectives put in the work, with Swindon dealers placed under police surveillance, teen drugs pushers rounded up and thousands of phone messages analysed.

“It takes a lot of work to lock up the people who are higher up the chain. Their trade craft is normally better than those working at a street level and it takes a lot of resources and a lot of time to get to the point where we can put a case in front of the CPS and then eventually to court,” he said.

“The hardest thing is getting your head around how the model works. We’re dealing with, although they’re children they are street wise and they’re savvy. They’re not speaking to police, they’re not going to provide information.

“No one would actually confirm they were linked to this group. No one would give us information that would take us further forward.”

The erratic nature of some of the dealers was also a challenge, with the leaders buying from different suppliers.

Det Sgt Hilton said: “We like to see patterns of behaviour we can establish where people are going, what they’re doing.

“It was very much a hope and see they take us to something and, actually, we got lucky on a number of occasions.”