Kevin Grant Russell won’t be eligible for parole until the end of 2020 after he was sentenced in Tamworth District Court on Tuesday afternoon for his sophisticated drug-dealing operation.

And the $24,755 in cash he was caught with when he was intercepted in a secret police sting has also been confiscated.

Russell, now aged 61, used coded and guarded language and several mobile phones to avoid detection but it wasn’t enough.

Russell’s movements were being tracked by Strike Force Guerie – a covert police operation set-up by Oxley detectives to home in on drug dealers in the Tamworth area in 2016.

Investigators homed in on Russell in January, 2016, finding he was a mid-level supplier, sourcing heroin from Sydney and transporting it back to Tamworth to on-sell.

Russell took to the witness box during the sentencing hearing and said he had a diseased gall bladder and "started getting that sick I couldn't work".

"I self medicated ... it was the only way I could put up with the pain,” he told the court.

"It was the only thing that could stop the pain.”

The court heard Russell got out of jail for drugs in 1985 but “was back on the gear” in 1994 when he was locked up for drug supply and conspiracy in Newcastle District Court.

In April, last year, Russell was intercepted in a Mazda RX8 by police in Muswellbrook. The car was seized by police, towed to Tamworth and inside a concealed compartment near the stereo, police found 56.5g of heroin.

Two months earlier, police caught him talking about 56g of the drug with his upper level supplier from Sydney.

In another car stop near Willow Tree, officers searched him and found heroin hidden in his buttocks as well as $1645 in cash.

Russell, who was on a good behaviour bond at the time, has been behind bars since June, 2016, following his arrest.

Judge Jeffery McLennan said the anti-surveillance measures undertaken by Russell as well "coded and guarded conversations" and multiple phones show his conduct was above mid-range.

"[He] undertook three trips to Sydney to source the drug he would on-sell," he said in sentencing.

"[The] degree of sophistication displayed by Mr Russell stems from his past involvement in supply".

Judge McLennan said Russell was using four times a day but "none of that excuses" his offending.

"He of all people ought to have been of aware of debilitating this drug can be," he said.

"The dissemination of drugs into the community, no matter what type [of drugs] has to be deterred."

Russell worked for much of his life, moving over 300 houses as well as other handyman jobs.

He said it was “peer pressure” that first saw him turn to drugs, first trying cannabis at age 14 and heroin at 16.

Russell said he wanted to get out of jail, get back to work and see his family.

Barrister Jason Curtis said his client  was a “man that still has a lot of potential” but “that potential is contingent on him dealing with an addiction".

When questioned by the DPP solicitor Donna Harris, Russell said he was “ just getting enough to have my own".

Ms Harris said he was caught on one occasion with more than 50g of heroin.

“I wasn't making any money, I was just getting enough to have my heroin,” he told the court.

“The more you got the less you have to go to Sydney.”

He said his drug addiction would have continued “I spose until I got arrested”.

“I haven't had any drugs since I've been in jail, there is drugs in jail, as everyone knows,” he told the court.

He was jailed for a maximum of six years six months with a non-parole period of four years, backdated to his June arrest, last year, for supplying a prohibited drug and dealing with the proceeds of crime.