The leader of a drugs gang will be deported after he has served a nine year jail sentence.

Richard Davis was head of a gang responsible for hundreds of heroin and crack cocaine deals in Hastings every day.

Judge Anthony Niblett yesterday ordered that Davis should remain in detention after his sentence ends.

He will then be deported as soon as arrangements can be made to return him to Jamaica.

Judge Niblett, approving the deportation, told Davis: "I am satisfied that your continued presence in this country after the end of the sentence will be detrimental to the public interest."

Davis and his gang were caught after undercover police secretly filmed them operating in the town's notorious drug haunts.

A test purchase officer bought wraps of heroin and crack from Davis and his associates Sherlett Scarlett and Junior Hutchinson.

The officer, known as Sean, crawled through undergrowth in the town's Alexandra Park and Croft Road woods to make some of the deals.

The jury was shown footage from covert cameras which secretly filmed drugs being bought by users who included a woman with a young girl and a man on a bike.

Many of the deals took place near the Londis store in Cornwallis Street, the station, at the Castle Hill cemetery and in the Devonshire Road area.

Police later raided a house in Priory Road where three bags containing £13,000 were found.

The notes included four with serial numbers which had been recorded and used by Sean to pay for drugs.

Davis, 35, of Braybrooke Terrace, Hastings, and his co-defendants from London denied conspiracy to supply.

He was convicted after a three-week trial at Hove Crown Court last month.

Hutchinson, of Longfellow Road, Walthamstow, and Scarlett, of Harpenden Road, West Norwood, were cleared of conspiracy to supply after they pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of selling drugs to the officer in an isolated incident.

Hutchinson, 32, was jailed for three years and Scarlett, 29, was sent to prison for 18 months.

A major crackdown on drug dealers in Hastings was launched last year after complaints from residents and shopkeepers.

The trial heard that there are hundreds of known drug users in the town and between 20 and 30 regular suppliers.

Davis was returned to Camp Hill prison on the Isle of Wight after the deportation hearing yesterday to continue serving his sentence.