A drugs courier tried to hide cocaine and heroin behind a washing machine after police raided a property.
Alan Bell, 57, who has been 'wracked with addiction for a very long time', was caught with the drugs at a house in Newton Heath.
Police had turned up armed with a search warrant, following suspicions that drugs were being dealt from the premises in Edgware Road.
When they arrived, a police officer observed Bell 'put something towards the washing machine area', prosecutor Alison Mather told Manchester Crown Court.
The items were found to be wraps of cocaine and heroin.
There was also a package on the kitchen counter next to Bell's car keys and mobile phone.
Officers found 100 wraps of cocaine and 44 wraps of heroin, said to be worth £1,620.
In a basis of plea document accepted by prosecutors, Bell said that someone else who he wasn't prepared to name was involved in dealing the drugs.
He said that he has accrued a 'substantial' debt to the dealers, who supplied him with cocaine and heroin over several years.
Those dealers asked him to move the drugs on their behalf, and in return his debts would be reduced.
The house in Newton Heath was not his home, the court heard.
The court was told that no-one else has been prosecuted in relation to the drugs seizures.
Two people were arrested but no further action was taken against them.
A judge ordered that the case be reviewed by a senior officer to determine 'whether or not others should be brought to justice'.
"I am deeply suspicious about these facts and I am astonished that the only person to be standing in the dock is you," Judge Anthony Cross QC said.
Bell, from Rochdale, previously received a community order after being convicted of possession with intent to supply amphetamine.
His barrister Keith Harrison said that in that case Bell had been 'put upon by others'.
Mr Harrison said that Bell's offending was a 'one off' and that he hadn't actually been selling drugs.
He said that Bell had suffered from depression and turned to drugs following the 'loss of a child in a fire'.
Bell is currently drug free and has been taking steps to address his addiction problem, the court was told.
Sentencing, Judge Cross jailed Bell for 18 months, saying that cocaine and heroin are drugs that 'wreck lives'.
He told Bell: "The reality is that this sort of heroin and cocaine dealing, which is so prevalent in this city, brings with it the brutalisation of weak people such as you.
"But I would be failing in my public duty if I were to not send you to jail. It would just be wrong if I don't.
"Because this wasn't just a small package of class A drugs. It was a substantial amount."
Bell, of Brackenhall Court, Rochdale, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine and heroin.
