THREE Burnley men trapped by an undercover police operation targeting street level drug dealing in the town have all been jailed.

Preston Crown court was told that the three men were caught during Operation Monaco in the early part of this year.

Lee Kershaw, Michael Ash and Paul Whitehead were dealt with in three separate hearings at the city's crown court.

In the first hearing, Kershaw, 29, of Spencer Street, was sentenced to three years and four months for supplying heroin.

Mr Neil Standage, prosecuting, told the court Kershaw was caught during Operation Monaco selling heroin to an undercover police officer on March 6 this year. In the second case, Michael Ash, 32, of Parkinson Street, was also jailed for three years and four months for supplying heroin also to an undercover police officer.

Judge Robert Brown told Ash: "You were delivering heroin to undercover police officers as a go-between in order to secure you own supply." In a third hearing, Paul Whitehead, 21, of Kinross Street, Burnley, had been committed for sentence after pleading guilty to offering to supply heroin to an undercover police officer on April 3 this year. He was jailed for three years.