A teenager who became a major player in a lucrative Class A drugs racket has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Joshua Roy Thorpe, 18, played an “operational or management” role in a drug network supplying heroin and cocaine in Harrogate.

Ian Cook, prosecuting at York Crown Court, said that Thorpe went from being exploited by others to a leading role in the plot after “moving up the chain and recruiting others to sell drugs”.

Thorpe’s transformation from “naïve, exploited victim” to serious, hardened criminal happened in a matter of months and culminated in the teenager threatening to burn down the house of a drug-runner and debtor if he didn’t pay up.

He ultimately had a management position in a drug-supply line in Harrogate which police codenamed Active Shots. The drugs had been sourced from Bradford.

Drugs and weapons

Officers first swooped on Thorpe’s home on June 20 last year. He was taken into custody at Harrogate Police Station, where they found just over 7g of “extremely high-purity” cocaine on him. The drugs had a street value of £600.

Analysis of his two mobile phones showed he had been sending out daily broadcast messages to multiple potential cocaine customers and bragging that he supplied “only the best”.

During a search of his home, police found several mobile phones, a debtors’ list, £510 cash, digital weighing scales, cannabis and weapons, including two imitation firearms, a crossbow and a black sword. Thorpe refused to comment about these finds when quizzed by police.

Crack cocaine

He was released under investigation but when they returned to his address later in the year on an unrelated matter, officers found a bag containing 214 MDMA tablets under a plank in the garden. They also found 32 knotted wraps of heroin and 29 wraps of crack cocaine, along with just over 10g of cannabis, grip-seal bags and three mobile phones.

The heroin and cocaine alone had a combined value of over £1,000.

Messages found on the phones showed that others were running drugs “on behalf of the defendant” over a four-week period in October, including one who was told by Thorpe to “supply on tick”.

'Burgle or rob anybody'

Other messages revealed that Thorpe had enforced a drug debt owed by one of his runners by threatening to blow up and “put a car through” his house. He also threatened to “bang your dad straight out” and told the runner he should “burgle or rob anybody” to clear the debt.

Thorpe ultimately admitted two separate indictments encompassing two different periods of drug dealing in June and October last year.

He admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine and possessing the Class A drug with intent to supply in respect of the first indictment.

He also pleaded guilty to four offences in a second indictment, namely possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to supply and simple possession of cannabis and MDMA, the crystallised form of ecstasy.

Thorpe, of no fixed address, appeared for sentence via video link today (May 28) after being remanded in custody.

Previous convictions

Prosecuting barrister Mr Cook said Thorpe had six previous convictions for 15 offences, including assaulting an emergency worker, criminal damage and cannabis possession. He was on bail for the latter offence when he first embarked on the lucrative supply racket last summer.

Defence barrister Olivia Fraser said that Thorpe had effectively started out as a “victim” exploited by others in the chain and initially started dealing “on behalf of these people” but then started “organising others”.

She said he feared those people higher up the chain to whom he was in debt. He had been a habitual drug user since the age of 11, moving from cannabis to cocaine and nitrous oxide, known as ‘laughing gas’.

Sentencing

Jailing the teenager for four-and-a-half years, judge Simon Hickey said that Thorpe had played a leading role in “serious drug dealing” and had gone from being a “naïve, exploited victim” to an exploiter of others lower down the chain.

He told the teenager:

He added: