A DRUG dealer who denied selling crack cocaine to an undercover police officer has been jailed for seven years.

Stephen Nevins was the 29th and last dealer to be sentenced under the successful drugs operation known as Operation Venice.

Including Nevin, 29 dealers in heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine and amphetamines have been jailed for a total of 107 years.

The undercover operation, carried out in Bury last summer, involved police officers posing as addicts infiltrating drug dealing circles, buying drugs and then making arrests later.

The operation was so successful that when police arrested an addict some time later he told them that he only knew of one dealer left in the Bury area.

Nevins, aged 30, of Ancoats, appeared at Bolton Crown Court where he was convicted of four counts of supplying crack cocaine to undercover police officers on four dates in June and July last year. He had denied the offences.