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12
Mar
Drug gang jailed after exploiting children to supply heroin and cocaine into Harrogate
Four members of a drug gang has been jailed for a combined 26 years after supplying cocaine and heroin into Harrogate.
The “Teddy Line” was one of three county lines that were targeted through Operation Jackal, a county lines intelligence-led investigation launched in 2019 by North Yorkshire Police’s Organised Crime Unit.
It was run by an organised crime group that infiltrated Harrogate via the use of local drug dealers and began distributing cocaine and heroin for the consumption of local drug users, the majority of whom were vulnerable by way of socioeconomic background and mental health conditions.
The gang exploited children and used them to courier the drugs and profits between Bradford and Harrogate.
A joint operation in February 2020 involving the Regional Organised Crime Unit, West Yorkshire Police, the National Crime Agency and the National County Lines Coordination Centre, saw the arrest of a number of suspects from both towns. The heads of the drug operations being in Bradford and those lower down the chain coming from Harrogate.
Five of the gang were sentenced at Leeds Crown Court. They included:
- Sanchez Heffernan, 33 of Rufus Street, Bradford, was found guilty of conspiracy to supply class A drugs. He was jailed for nine years.
- Waqas Ali, 34 of Rufus Street, Bradford, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drug and two counts of human trafficking and exploitation, he was jailed for eight years and eight months for drug offences and four years for human trafficking, to run concurrent.
- Mohammed Owais Ali, 26, of Basil Street, Bradford, was found guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs, he was jailed for seven years.
- Ben Parcell, 42, of Bramham Drive, Harrogate, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs. He was jailed for two years and three months.
- Nicola Jayne Fletcher 47, of Harrogate pleaded guilty of conspiracy to supply class A drugs. She was given an 18-month sentence suspended for two years.
Detective Sergeant Sam Harding, of North Yorkshire Police’s Organised Crime Unit and now of the Regional Organised Crime Unit, said:
Vulnerable children were used to courier the drugs and do the gang's dirty work.
They showed no regard whatsoever for the children in a bid to hide their own tracks and evade detection. The children were shamefully used as a commodity to help the gang make money, and to face the dangers on the streets so that they didn’t have to.
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