NINE people have been charged with Class A drug dealing offences after police carried out a series of dawn raids at homes in Chester and Merseyside.

Officers executed warrants at four addresses in Chester, six in Liverpool and one in St Helens yesterday (Thursday, April 25) as part of Cheshire Constabulary’s ongoing fight against county lines drug dealing.

The Operation Wagtail raids followed a complex, covert, six-month long investigation into the supply of heroin and crack cocaine from Merseyside to Chester.

The investigation has been conducted by Chester Local Policing Unit (LPU), which organised and co-ordinated the raids.

They were carried out by 44 officers, including six from Merseyside Police.

Eight men, aged between 24 and 54, and a 26-year-old woman have subsequently been charged with conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin.

The men – five from Chester, two from Liverpool and one from St Helens – and the woman from Liverpool have all been remanded in custody and are due to appear at Crewe Magistrates’ Court today (Friday, April 26).

The full list of charges is:

• Twenty five-year-old man Daniel Rubert, of Noble Close, Chester, has been charged with four counts of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and four counts of conspiracy to supply heroin, as well as possession with intent to supply a class B drug (cannabis) and perverting the course of justice

• Fifty four-year-old man Graham Mallon, of Blacon Point Road, Chester, has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and two counts of conspiracy to supply heroin

• Fifty three-year-old man Stephen Bellis, of Treborth Road, Blacon, Chester, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and one count of conspiracy to supply heroin

• Fifty two-year-old man Sean Roddy, of Melbourne Road, Blacon, Chester, has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and two counts of conspiracy to supply heroin

• Fifty two-year-old man Paul Williamson, of Park Avenue, Saughall, Chester, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and one count of conspiracy to supply heroin

• Twenty four-year-old man Dylan Griffiths, of Oakfield Road, Liverpool, has been charged with three counts of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and three counts of conspiracy to supply heroin

• Twenty six-year-old woman Zahrah O’Bad, of Oakfield Road Liverpool, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and one count of conspiracy to supply heroin

• Twenty seven-year-old man Carl Henderson, of Trevelyan Street, Liverpool, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and one count of conspiracy to supply heroin

• Twenty five-year-old man James Bolland, of Higher Parr Street, St Helens, has been charged with four counts of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and four counts of conspiracy to supply heroin.