Two county lines drug dealers who were arrested during a police crackdown have been made the subject of serious crime prevention orders.

Half brothers Maverick Dwyer, 26, and Christopher Prosser, 32, were jailed at Ipswich Crown Court in August for conspiring to supply heroin and crack cocaine.

Dwyer, who was jailed for six years and Prosser, who was jailed for six years and two months, were arrested as part of an operation by Suffolk police and Met officers to target county lines.

They each admitted two offences of conspiracy to supply class A drugs in Haverhill and were the first to be sentenced since the launch of Operation Orochi in February.

At the sentencing, Judge David Goodin said county lines dealt in “dependency and degradation”, adding: “It’s a serious evil on society, which society expects to be dealt with severely.”

Operation Orochi aims to shut down dealers by analysing the data of mobile phones used to buy and sell class A drugs.

At their sentencing hearing Duncan O’Donnell, prosecuting, said the conspiracy lasted from July 2019 to the date of their arrests in May this year.

Dwyer and Prosser, both of no fixed address, were responsible for two phone lines transmitting bulk advertising text messages to drug users.

On September 6 last year police searched an address in Haverhill and found 8.44g of crack divided into 106 wraps, along with 15.37g of cocaine and 7.2g of heroin.

In February this year, both men bought phone credit for the two deal lines – and were found in possession of a total of five mobile phones when stopped and searched in March.

The defendants appeared at Ipswich Crown Court on Monday, October 5 via prison video link and were each given a five-year serious crime prevention order.

A hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act will take place on February 1.