Two “enthusiastic” drug dealers who hid heroin and crack cocaine in Kinder chocolate eggs were netted in a police crackdown and have been locked up for a total of ten and a half years.

Student Mohammed Khan, who played a managerial role in the supply line, and takeaway worker Muhammed Islam, who sold drugs to street dealers wholesale, were sentenced at Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

Both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs after they were arrested as part of Operation Stalebank in which undercover officers posed as addicts to order wraps of class A drugs from mobile dealers.

Khan, 25, of Parsonage Road, West Bowling, Bradford, was jailed for four and a half years.

Islam, 19, of Cranbrook Street, West Bowling, was sent to a young offender institution for six years.

The court heard he was caught dealing again, on police bail, on November 6 and pleaded guilty to two offences of possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine.

Prosecutor Richard Davies said the men transferred drugs in the novelty eggs. Mobile phones seized from them showed thousands of texts and calls, including many from phone boxes.

When police searched the men’s homes in March, Khan had cash in the attic and drugs concealed in the eggs. Digital scales were also found at his home.

Police also recovered a blood-stained shirt, backing up Khan’s claim that he had been attacked by those further up the drugs supply chain.

Mr Davies said that Khan was very intelligent and was recruited to man the phones while Islam worked out on the streets.

Islam was caught again when police saw him throw wraps of heroin and crack cocaine into gardens near his home.

He showed officers a cache of drugs hidden in a Kinder egg concealed behind his house.

Khan’s barrister, Nigel Hamilton, said he studied avionics at Leeds University but got involved in the drugs trade after crashing a car and owing £1,500 for repairs.

His family had been threatened and he was very relieved to be arrested.

Nick Worsley, for Islam, said he worked with young people in the West Bowling area and helped with sports initiatives.

He was helping the dealers to clear a debt and had been beaten up.

Neither man had been in trouble with the police before.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, said both defendants “willingly, enthusiastically and professionally” supplied drugs.

The people of Bradford knew that those involved in the “terrible trade” received significant jail sentences.