Drug dealing is a major blight on the Bradford East district with residents worried that their children will be groomed to join in the trafficking, the judge locking up a crack cocaine and heroin trader said today.

Recorder Margia Mostafa stated that many teachers in the area felt insecure, with staff at one primary school carrying phones and whistles and leaving before nightfall.

Pupils at schools in the district told a community impact survey that drug dealing was the worst problem they identified in the area, while parents feared their children would be sucked into the deadly trade by the trafficking gangs.

Recorder Mostafa locked up Mohammed Ayaz for 30 months at Bradford Crown Court after he was snared by the Operation Errantdance crack down on street dealing in Bradford East.

Ayaz, 20, of Oldham, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to supplying Class A drugs to law enforcement officer “Libby” over a five-day period in June last year.

The court heard that he was working for the Junior Line when he was caught by the undercover sting.

His co-accused, Mohammed Shakeel, was driving a black Mitsubishi when the pair were covertly filmed by the Operation Errantdance team of officers.

Shakeel, 40, of Moorthorpe Avenue, Bradford Moor, Bradford, pleaded guilty to six offences of supplying Class A drugs and was jailed for three years and two months at Bradford Crown Court earlier this month.

In mitigation for Ayaz, the court heard that his brother had been murdered and he himself had been the victim of a stabbing.

His family had left the city to begin a new life in Oldham.

Operation Errantdance secretly photographed dozens of mobile street drug dealers working in the Bradford East district during the first half of last year.

They were arrested and charged in December, the majority of them going on to receive lengthy jail sentences at Bradford Crown Court.

The dealers operated a number of different supply lines offering a “ring and bring” heroin and crack cocaine service to addicts waiting at pre-arranged pick-up points, outside shops, petrol stations and takeaways.

Undercover police officers “Libby” and “Emily” played a key role in the operation, approaching addicts waiting in the street to obtain the numbers of their dealers and then buying wraps of Class A drugs from them.

The dealers were arrested after they were caught on camera and their vehicles identified.