A drugs gang bought a seaside caravan for £7,000 cash and then used it as the hub of a heroin dealing network.

They brought large quantities of the drug into North Devon by courier from the South East and then split it up and sold it on through a network of street dealers.

Police intercepted one runner with £48,000 of the drug hidden inside his body as he arrived at Barnstaple railway station and they were able to trace the leader of the conspiracy through his phone records.

Kevin Bromley, aged 28, repeatedly rang the courier’s number in the hours after his arrest as he tried to find out what had happened to his delivery, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Police did not swoop on Bromley straight away but waited until they had more evidence before raiding his static caravan at the caravan park in Mortehoe, it was claimed. They found £440 in cash stuffed into a pocket of his tracksuit, £2,200 in a kitchen cupboard and £9,900 in a wardrobe.

Bromley, nicknamed Ace, recruited his heroin addict girlfriend Yvonne Diggins and street dealer Jason Harding to help him run the conspiracy, a jury was told.

Bromley and Diggins, aged 26, both of whom are now living in Hawkshill Road, Slough, and Harding, aged 36, of Phillip Avenue Barnstaple, all deny conspiracy to supply heroin and money laundering. Bromley also denies possession with intent to supply.

Mr Jonathan Barnes, prosecuting, said police intelligence had already linked Bromley to heroin dealing in 2007, two years before his arrest, at a time when he was living at Sunflower Road, Barnstaple.

In 2009 his finger prints were found on six wraps of heroin just after they had been delivered to a street dealer in Bell Meadow, Barnstaple in a car hired by Harding.

A few weeks later courier Terry Caley was arrested by police at the town’s railway station with 482 grams of heroin worth £48,219 and while in custody his phone was called repeatedly by Bromley’s mobile.

Mr Barnes said:”Quite obviously Bromley was expecting the latest shipment of heroin from up country and when Caley did not get in touch he got anxious and started ringing him.”

Checks showed an earlier pattern of phone traffic between the two men.

Mr Barnes said the caravan had been bought for £7,020 jointly in the names of all three in May 2009.

He said:“We say there were a number of foot soldiers and Bromley was the principal. There were a number of deliveries of heroin to North Devon by Caley and distribution on behalf of Bromley by others.”

Mr Barnes said all three denied involvement or made no comment in police interview and Harding attributed his ability to buy and run a series of cars to money he had made running go karts at Westward Ho! the previous summer.

The trial continues.