ACTING as a middle man for drug dealing has earned a Blackburn man a three-year jail sentence.

Unknowingly, Emran Sajawal told two undercover officers that police were operating in the area before the pair went on to be supplied with crack cocaine, a court was told.

He was brought to justice through Operation Nimrod, a crackdown on dealings in class A drugs.

Sajawal, 22, of Kempton Rise, Blackburn, admitted three offences of being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine.

Nick Courtney, prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, said on the first occasion, two officers in Whitendale Crescent were approached by Sajawal, who asked who they were after. He told them to wait at the top of Pringle Street, where he would send someone to supply them.

Someone went on to supply police with two £10 wraps of crack cocaine.

Later that month, the same officers were in Pringle Street and dialled a telephone number. They were directed to Whitendale Crescent, where they saw Sajawal, who said undercover police were in the area and that they should go to the Pringle Street school gates.

A dealer later supplied two £10 bags of cocaine.

Peter Turner, defending, said Sajawal seemed to have developed an insight into drug offending.

Judge Brian Duckworth said the message had to go out that those who got involved in drugs supply would be punished.