ANOTHER street dealer from Keighley has been locked up after being snared in a huge anti-drugs operation run by West Yorkshire Police.
Ali Mughal was caught on camera selling heroin and crack cocaine to an undercover police officer on six occasions between June 26 and August 9, 2023, in Keighley and Skipton.
Prosecutor Richard Walters told Bradford Crown Court that the majority of deals were done via calls or text messages to a phone number known as the “trick line”.
The undercover officer would make an order and then drive to a pre-arranged location in Keighley or Skipton to pay for and receive wraps of heroin and crack cocaine.
On some occasions, Mughal, 22, of Cliffe Street, Keighley, would be a passenger in a car. On other occasions he was the driver and sole occupant.
He was identified from covert images taken by the undercover officer and arrested on May 1 this year.
During an interview he answered “no comment” to all questions asked. He later pleaded guilty to supplying controlled Class A drugs.
The court heard that Mughal’s previous offences dated back to 2019 and included possession with intent to supply Class A drugs, driving whilst disqualified, and criminal damage.
Mitigating, Ella Embleton said Mughal had previously been involved in the supply of drugs when he was a youth and had succumbed to pressure and intimidation from the same individual to run drugs in order to pay off a drug debt.
She said there was no evidence that the “trick line” was run by Mughal.
She said: “If he didn’t do that [run drugs] then he was risking harm to both himself and his family.”
Sentencing Mughal, who appeared via video link from HMP Leeds, to four-and-a-half years behind bars, His Honour Judge Colin Burn said he had been running drugs to Skipton out of Keighley.
He said his previous involvement as a youth had involved naivety and exploitation but that the evidence showed he had been “closely associated” with the “trick line” and knew what he was doing.
“I have to take the view that you went into this with your eyes open and were in it for some financial gain, even if it was just paying off a debt.
“You were turning up in different cars accompanied by different people. On other occasions you operated alone.
“You are not a simple runner in my view.”
Judge Burn ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the heroin and crack cocaine seized during the police operation.
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