Stand up to drug lords, urges judge

5:17am Friday 9th May 2008

A judge has urged Bradford people to stand up against criminal Mr Bigs as the city becomes "riddled" with drugs.

Judge Alistair McCallum told two heroin and crack cocaine street dealers they could help lock up the major players for 25 years.

Iftekar Sadiq and Azad Aslam refused to disclose any names after they were caught selling wraps of heroin and crack cocaine in Reevy Road West, Buttershaw.

Sadiq was jailed for four years and Aslam, the father of two young children, for three years.

Judge McCallum urged everyone in the Bradford area to stand up against drug dealers getting rich by "selling poison to young people in our community".

"Bradford is being reduced to a city just riddled with drugs. It has the most appalling record for drugs," he said.

Sadiq, 21, of Luke Road, Canter-bury, Bradford, and Aslam, 39, of Scholemoor Avenue, Scholemoor, Bradford, pleaded guilty to possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply, supplying the drugs and possessing criminal property.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that Aslam was dealing because he was out of work and Sadiq was forced to peddle the drugs to pay off a debt to his dealers.

Prosecutor Gavin Howie said the pair were caught selling wraps of the drugs hidden in a chocolate egg.

Officers in Bradford Area Drugs Team swooped on July 26 last year. They blocked in Aslam's car, smashed a window and seized the keys. Sadiq had £270 cash in his pocket and £1,250 was found at Aslam's home.

Aslam told police he had been "doing drops" in Little Horton and Canterbury for a month.

Sadiq, who was a drug addict, was paying off a debt to dealers.

Sadiq was remanded in custody after failing to appear at an earlier hearing. He was locked up for two years in January 2006 for very similar drugs offences.

Aslam's barrister, Michael Greenhalgh, said he was out of work at the time and paid to drive round doing street deals. But Judge McCallum said Aslam was trading on other people's misery to try to get rich.

The judge said Aslam "was sensible enough not to take any of the poison himself".

Nawaz Hussain, for Sadiq, said he was in "substantial debt" to a dealer. "He wanted to come clean but he faced the real threat of the kind of retribution that can be meted out by those higher up the food chain," Mr Hussain said.

After the case, Sergeant Chris Day, of the Bradford District Drugs Team, said: "We welcome the sentences.

"We work day-in, day-out, on the streets of the Bradford district. You might not see us, as we often work undercover, but we are there and are determined to tackle the problem of drugs. Calls from the public to our Dob in a Dealer line are invaluable and I would urge anyone who has any information or suspicions about drug dealing to contact us anonymously and free of charge on 0800 555111.

"From April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008, we took 1214 calls from members of the public to the Dob in a Dealer line. The team made 441 arrests for drug offences, carried out 354 operations, just short of one a day for the year, and we seized nearly £2 million worth of Class A drugs."