A 35-year-old man who ran a controlled class A drugs line in Suffolk has been jailed for more than four years. 

Michael Mayes, of Bengal Road in Ramsgate, appeared before Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday. 

In May 2021, a known Ccass A drug user was arrested in Ipswich for an unrelated matter and their phone was seized as a result.

When officers carried out an analysis of the phone they found a number of messages had been received in the typical style of those sent by county lines operations offering drugs for sale, linked to a particular number calling itself ‘Rockstar’.

Over the course of the following four months, further arrests and phone seizures provided more evidence of the ‘Rockstar’ line operating in Ipswich.

On September 20, 2021, officers executed a warrant under the Misuse of Drugs Act at an address in Station Street, Ipswich.

Mayes was one of the people located inside the address and he was found with £1,200 in his trainer, while class A drugs were also found at the property.

Mayes was located in a bedroom of the home and two mobile phones were also located in the room.

These were later found to have been the numbers most recently sending messages offering drugs for sale from ‘Rockstar’. 

Earlier that month, on September 1, Kent Police had cause to attend an address in Margate where Mayes had previously resided.

Officers seized three phones, one of which was found to have been used to send earlier messages from the ‘Rockstar’ line, from this Margate address.

Mayes had previously pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine, being concerned in the supply of heroin both occurring between April 28, 2021, and September 20, 2021 and money laundering. 

He was sentenced to four years and three months in jail. 

Detective Sergeant Vince Grimsey, of the Serious Crime Disruption Team at Suffolk police, said: “Over the course of several months and primarily through detailed mobile phone analysis, we were able to undeniably prove that Michael Mayes was controlling the county line identified as ‘Rockstar’. 

“We are pleased to have removed another county line from the streets of Suffolk. People such as Mayes prey on predominantly vulnerable people and are a blight on society.

"I welcome the sentence handed down to him by the court which reflects the seriousness of his crimes.”