A heroin addict gave an inside story of life inside a Bristol cocaine gang, said to have made itself almost £1 million a week.

Grant Richmond, 29, told how he helped the gang "cut" and distribute cocaine, and on Sundays they would count bundles of cash they raked in, netting weekly sums as high as £900,000.

Richmond told how organiser Craig Rodel spent his money on fast cars, jewellery and diamonds and even a yacht.

He said it was Rodel who also sent him and an accomplice to put two shots into a Hartcliffe house, late at night, using a sawn-off shotgun.

Bristol Crown Court has heard police – called to deal with a burglary in Highridge – stumbled on a cocaine factory operated by a well-armed drugs gang on a highly lucrative "industrial scale".

Officers who attended Flat 7, 79 Highridge Green, in June last year found the place in a shambles and discovered a 10-tonne hydraulic press, white powder and cutting agents, as well as an "arsenal" of weapons including rifles, handguns, stun grenades and ammunition.

It is claimed a gang moved in to corner the Bristol market when other drug dealers were convicted and jailed.

It is alleged a kilo of pure cocaine would be bought for around £33,000 which, when cut with caffeine or other agents, could be sold on for huge profit.

Judo expert and teacher James Waithe, 47, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine as well as possession of firearms to endanger life, and simple possession of firearms and explosives.

Robert Brooks, 63, of no fixed address, has pleaded guilty to the drugs conspiracy but denies the firearms charges.

Richmond, of Long Cross, Lawrence Weston, and Rodel, 46, of Wexford Road, Bristol, and Luke Downes, 22, of Pevensey Walk, Bristol, have all pleaded guilty to being involved in the conspiracy.

Speaking from behind a screen, Richmond said he was involved in "cutting" cocaine with additives such as caffeine to make it go further.

He said the Highridge Green flat was the address of Waithe, who was a minder and friend of Rodel, and Rodel paid him £2,000 a week rent to use it.

He told the jury though Waithe would be present at the flat, he didn't set up the operation found there and he didn't move items there previously stored at a flat above a jeweller's shop in Weston-super-Mare belonging to Brooks.

The court heard that, having mixed and supplied cocaine as well as supplied as many as 200,000 ecstasy tablets, on Sundays the gang counted their cash at Rodel's home.

He said: "The counting would take hours. Money would be put into piles and the piles would get bigger as the day went on. In an average week there would be £750,000, but there would be different amounts, from £600,000 to £900,000 maximum."

Richmond said Rodel invested his share in buying diamonds worth as much as £500,000, and had £500,000 to £1million worth of prestige watches such as Breitling, Rolex and Cartier.

"I knew he had a yacht abroad," Richmond said. "He had quite a lot of cars. He had a rare Porsche with a plaque saying it raced at Le Mans. He had two BMWs and a CL500 Mercedes and a lot of other cars."

Richmond said Brooks also had an expensive Mercedes, which he believed Brooks bought at the same time Rodel bought his.

He recalled one occasion when, after receiving a request, Rodel tasked him and Downes to fire two gunshots into a home in Hartcliffe.

He told the jury: "He (Rodel) said 'put one in the front door and put one in the downstairs window'. He said leave it till late at night because there was kids in the house."

Richmond said he drove there and Downes used a sawn-off shotgun to fire a hole in the door, but missed the window and shot a motorcycle instead.

He said Downes retained the spent cartridges and washed himself with Coca-Cola to get rid of the cordite residue; each were paid £500.

Richmond said prior to his pleading guilty, he was remanded in custody at HMP Bristol with his co-defendants.

The case continues at Bristol Crown Court.