THREE drug dealers fell victim to an undercover police operation by selling heroin and cocaine to plain-clothes officers in a pub.

The three men were jailed for a total of 17 years at Reading Crown Court last Friday after police swooped on them in the White Hart pub in Maidenhead.

Casual worker, Stephen Walker, 23, of Ballinger Road, Great Missenden, was jailed for six-and-a-half years after admitting conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine and possession of a prohibited weapon.

Former roofer Brian Macerlean, 48, of Maidenhead, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply the class A drugs.

Plumber Andrew McBride, 49, of Slough, was jailed for three years after admitting supplying cocaine in April last year.

David Hooper, defending Walker, said: "He was the runner who showed the drugs to the undercover police officer.

"He got into something further and deeper than he intended doing -- he may be regarded as a small fish albeit in a very serious business."

The court heard how undercover policemen met the men in a Maidenhead pub last April and made a drugs deal involving heroin and cocaine worth £12,500.

The deal involved heroin worth £8,000 and cocaine valued at £4,500.

A fourth man, Peter O'Sullivan, 31, of Maidenhead, escaped going to jail but was given a one-year prison sentence suspended for two years after admitting possession of cocaine in June last year.

Judge Stanley Spence said: "Drugs, especially class A drugs, are a desperately dangerous substance.

"They kill people, cause people to form addictions to them, and these addictions often lead people into further crime to obtain money."

He added: "People don't become addicted unless they obtain heroin, cocaine, or similar -- in order to do that, someone has to sell them."

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