A TEENAGE drug dealer who travelled from Bradford to sell heroin and crack cocaine in East Lancashire has been jailed for 27 months.

Mohammed Ali, 19, had a large quantity of 92 per cent purity crack along with wraps of heroin in his car when he was stopped on April 10.

Preston Crown Court heard Ali, who has no previous convictions, started using cannabis at the age of 14 and had fallen into debt with dealers.

In order to clear his £1,400 debt, he agreed to take the drugs to East Lancashire to sell.

Officers stopped him in Accrington and found 72 wraps of heroin, 45 wraps of crack and a quantity of crack which had not been broken into individual deals.

Mobile phone messages retrieved from Ali’s handset also revealed links to drug dealing over a large geographic area.

The drugs had a combined street value of £1,770, the court heard.

Ali pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs and appeared at Preston Crown Court to be sentenced.

Judge Jonathan Gibson, sentencing, said: “You are described on the whole as a balanced individual with a good family who have tried to instil in you, good, moral values.

“Many have been here today; I have seen them in the public gallery and I do understand that anyone from your family seeing you in the predicament you are in today is likely to be extremely upset - particularly your mother.

“This was the on the ground manifestation of the work of a more sophisticated organised crime group.

“The message must go out: those who sell class A drugs, particularly in this quantity, must know they bear the risk of a substantial period of custody if they are caught.”

He sentenced Ali, of Great Horton Road, Bradford, to 27 months in a young offenders’ institute.