The final chapter has closed on a massive drugs sting which caught three Merton drug dealers and handed them combined sentences of more than 10 years.

Seated behind screens at Kingston Crown Court on Friday, the undercover officers responsible for carrying out the drugs bust code named Operation Dragnet heard Judge Kenneth MacRae pass sentence on the last dealer, Michael McNally, 34, of Sutton.

He received a two-year suspended sentence for three counts of supplying heroin to undercover officers outside Sutton train station.

Thirty-year-old Ivan Ballard of Darley Gardens, St Helier, pleaded guilty to three counts of supplying heroin between September 28 and November 27 and was sentenced to three and a half years.

Sarah Hurd, 37, of Pelham Road, Wimbledon, was sentenced to three years for two counts of supplying heroin.

July 10, 2002 10:30