A "STREET dealer" who sold drugs worth £700 every day in Newport for a Jamaican gang has been jailed for four and a half years.

Father of two Mark Berry, 36, dealt heroin and crack cocaine from his home in Pill, Cardiff crown court heard.

Judge Christopher Llewellyn-Jones, QC, told Berry he would have received 12 years in jail but for his guilty plea and the evidence he gave in a trial that saw three other gang members convicted.

Nicholas Gareth-Jones, prosecuting, said Berry's Courtybella Terrace home was the retail outlet for the Yardie gang from Jamaica.

Mr Gareth-Jones said: "He started to deal at about 9am and often went on to 8pm, selling drugs worth £700 a day."

Mr Gareth-Jones said Yardie gang member Delroy Taylor, 38, of Alexandra Road, Pill, and his partner, Sarah Williams, 34, of Ruperra Street, Pill, took drugs to Courtybella Terrace for Berry to distribute. He said Berry was arrested as part of Newport police's Operation Corolla on November 12, 2002.

At Taylor's home police found £13,000 worth of heroin and £22,000 worth of cocaine hidden in a vacuum cleaner bag.

Mr Gareth-Jones said the gang sold up to £600,000 worth of drugs in Newport in the 12-week period of the operation.

A total of 18 have now been convicted and the sentence total has reached more than 47 years.

Taylor received 15 years and Williams was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

A fellow conspirator, Nefford Gayle, who ensured Berry sold the drugs and handed over cash, was imprisoned for ten years.

Gayle, 37, of Courtybella Terrace, was sentenced with Williams and Taylor on May 20.

Berry pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine in Newport in March last year.

Judge Llewellyn-Jones said: "You were involved in a major distribution of Class A drugs in Pill.

"Your part was as a street dealer. The evil of that type of supply you are no doubt aware of."

He jailed Berry for four and a half years, taking into account his guilty plea and the evidence he gave in the trial.

Ieuan Rees, defending, said Berry was no longer an addict and was keen to re-establish contact with his two young children.