£500k drugs including Colombian cocaine and heroin found in Wolverhampton house

Mr Peter Arnold, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court: "It was a two up, two down crammed with drugs and the paraphernalia for recovering, processing, packaging and supplying crack, heroin, cocaine and cannabis. This is not some guy on a street corner peddling a few wraps. This is big time stuff."

The man behind the racket - Jerome Nash - was found hiding in a bedroom cupboard when around a dozen officers, some armed with rifles and side arms, swooped on the property in Stanley Road, Bushbury and broke down the front door with a two man battering ram at 3am on May 27.

Mr Arnold said of the 23-year-old, who has admitted his involvement: "For the first half of this year, maybe before, Jerome Nash was running a significant and established business supplying illegal drugs from his house."

The prosecutor alleged that three people 'closely related' to the man also had parts to play in the operation.

Nash's girlfriend, 25-year-old Teresa Shaw, his sister Simone Nash, 33, and long time friend Daniel Poplin, also 25, each deny the claim.

There were signs that half kilos of cocaine and heroin imported from Colombia had recently been unwrapped at the address which had its own 'laboratory' with face masks, a microwave showing traces of cocaine and mixing agents, the court heard.

A strongarm press and plates was found in the garage. Mr Arnold explained: "In the rather murky world of drug dealing this is used to compress drugs to make it look like they have just come into the country.

"But they have been here for some time and have been adulterated, bulked up with paracetamol and the like."

A £2,000 bundle of money was lying by a bed, on the other side of which was a cash counting machine. There was also a large amount of cannabis, it was said.

"Somebody had tried to flush SIM cards from mobile phones down the lavatory," revealed Mr Arnold who continued: "If you have £500,000 worth of drugs in your house you are not just worried about the police finding out, you are also worried about other people."

The property was covered by three cameras, film from which allegedly showed Shaw and Poplin regularly coming and going - sometimes carrying bags - during the five days before the raid.

A simultaneous swoop on the two bedroom home of Nash's sister Simone three miles away in Waterside Close, Parkfields disclosed a safe holding £64,260 cash and a sports bag with a 9mm self loading pistol and five rounds of ammunition.

"This firearm kills people," declared the prosecutor. "It was in Simone Nash's bedroom. Her fingerprint was found on the outside of the bag in which it was discovered. If you are a drug dealer you need to protect your valuables."

Poplin from Burton Crescent, Heath Town and Shaw of Wayside, Pendeford were both at the Stanley Road address when it was raided, the jury was told.

Each denied possession of cocaine, diamorphine, base cocaine and cannabis with intent to supply. Simone Nash pleaded not guilty to possession of a prohibited firearm and ammunition and further denied having an estimated £60,000 proceeds of crime. The trial continues.