A DRUG dealer who set up his own ‘Sonic’ supply line, complete with a runner to deliver high purity crack cocaine and heroin to his customers, has been locked up for four and a half years.

Hassan Khan, now 20, had only recently moved to Keighley when he was caught six times selling Class A drugs to an undercover police officer in the Operation Saucer Lake crackdown on street dealers in the town.

Khan, of Clayton Rise, Keighley, ran a ‘ring and bring’ drugs service, delivering to addicts in public places in broad daylight, between August 25 and September 27 last year.

Prosecutor Clare Walsh said he pleaded guilty to six offences of supplying Class A drugs on the day of his trial.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that Khan told the undercover officer involved in the sting that he had a runner working for him on his Sonic Line.

Drugs were traded for £20 at various locations in the town, including near a primary school and outside the gates of Devonshire Park, in Cavendish Street.

Khan also sold drugs in Haworth, asking the undercover officer to find him more customers from the village, the court was told.

The wraps he trafficked were of high purity, up to 89 per cent, Mrs Walsh said.

Khan’s barrister, Nigel Jamieson, said he was 19 at the time and had no previous convictions.

He was a cocaine user who ran up a debt and “someone got a hold over him”.

“It is a sadly typical example of what seems to happen,” Mr Jamieson said.

Khan was an otherwise decent young man who had worked as a delivery driver for a kitchenware firm.

The new Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, said Operation Saucer Lake was “a purposeful and deliberate attempt by the authorities to recognise the problem in Keighley and the general area caused by young men selling drugs in slick operations”.

Judge Durham Hall said the situation had got out of control, with the actions of the dealers getting “more blatant and brutal”.

“The concern in the neighbourhood is at a very high level. The actions of the drug dealers is blatant and any attempts by residents to stand up to their depraved actions leads to retribution.

“I am restating the courts’ absolute conviction and intention to deal with this problem robustly,” he said.

Judge Durham Hall told Khan: “The former Recorder of Bradford noted the blight, the damage, the misery and the dreadful social consequences, of which I am satisfied that you, and your type, care nothing.”

Khan was sentenced to 54 months in a young offender institution.