A judge has handed lengthy jail sentences to two drug dealers who fuelled a cocaine “plague” in Whitehaven as they targeted wealthy Sellafield workers.

Chad Jamieson, 24, who had a £100 a day habit, and his pal Jordan Malkinson, 23, were caught partly due to incriminating text messages in which they boasted of the cash they would make.

Each admitted conspiring to supply the class A drug between April and June of 2017.

Malkinson, of The Larches, Egremont, was jailed for three years and Jamieson, from Nethertown Road, St Bees, for four years and nine months.

Carlisle Crown Court heard how the men targeted pay-day at Sellafield as they plotted to drum up business.

One text discussion included the sentence: “We can make serious coin.”

They planned to spend their profits on partying, clothes and holidays.

Malkinson’s drug dealing ended when police stopped a car he was in on June 3 last year in Whitehaven. Officers saw him hiding a snap-bag containing cocaine.

They also found weighing scales, cash and a mobile phone, which provided the link to Jamieson.

After his friend’s arrest, Jamieson stopped dealing - but returned to it in September.

But in October he called police, triggering his own arrest.

He claimed his supplier had threatened him, leaving him terrified.

His claim not to remember the PIN number for the phone was dismissed by the judge, who said the device would contain incriminating evidence.

Police found cocaine worth £5,000 in his car, but he claimed he was simply minding it for his dealer.

Judge Peter Davies rejected Jamieson’s claim to be dealing on a “limited basis.”

“He was simply out of his depth,” said Jamieson’s barrister Peter Schofield.

Brendan Burke, for Malkinson, said: “He’s determined to better himself.”

Both men of previous good character, they were under pressure to deal to reduce their debts, the court heard.

Passing sentence, Judge Davies said: “Between April 30, and October 31, 2017, parts of Whitehaven were plagued by the sale of cocaine by Chad Jamieson and Jordan Malkinson...

“Both of you were involved in significant class A sale and I’m not going to tolerate that in this county.

“There is too much drug dealing; too much money being made; and too much exploitation of people by this appalling merchandise.”