Leeds drug dealer sold cocaine and crack cocaine to undercover officers working on three different police operations

Mohamed Bouziane was identified as the man responsible for operating the LG Adam dealing line, answering calls made to the mobile phone number and arranging to meet people looking to buy crack cocaine.

Leeds Crown Court heard how the 24-year-old had sold the drug to a plain clothes officer on six separate occasions between August and November 2021.

Those purchases were made as part of two police operations focused on organised crime in the city, including in the Harehills area.

The undercover officer first had contact with Bouziane in Compton Road at around 10.50am on August 13 that year. The defendant was leaving a house there and asked the officer if he was "wanting".

When the officer asked for £10 of crack cocaine, Bouziane pulled a bag out of his trousers, handed over a wrap and passed on the number for the LG Adam line.

Drug purchases up to £20 were arranged in Harehills between the pair on a further five occasions in the months that followed.

Prosecutor Andrew Pickin said it was not the first time that Bouziane had sold drugs to undercover officers, with the court hearing how he had sold a wrap of cocaine to officers involved in an earlier operation in October 2018.

On that occasion, he made an approach in Hirst's Yard in Leeds city centre. He pulled the drugs out of a blue bag stashed nearby and gave his name as Adam.

When interviewed by police in March this year, Bouziane said that he had taken crack cocaine himself but not regularly. A drug test returned a negative result.

He later admitted seven counts of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply.

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The court heard Bouziane, of Cherry Court, Leeds, has four convictions for six offences, the majority of which relate to possession of class A or B drugs.

Michael Collins, mitigating, said the drug dealing had been motivated by a lack of maturity combined with an addiction to class A drugs.

Two others had been with his client when he sold the cocaine in October 2018 and it was clear that he was being "watched by his employers" on that night.

He said there had been no further offending since he stopped using drugs in November last year, he was living with a family member and was seeking proper employment.

Bouziane told a probation officer that he started taking cocaine in 2018, with his drug use causing problems with his family that saw him become homeless and drop out of college. He claimed he began selling drugs after being beaten and stabbed due to a debt of around £500.

After moving back home, he got into a toxic relationship and began taking crack cocaine two or three times per week. He tried to clear the small debt he built up by dealing, but the money owed never reduced as his own drug use increased.

Sentencing him to 2.5 years in prison, Mr Recorder Ben Cox QC said Bouziane's addiction - of which there is no independent evidence - had not stopped him playing a very active part in a drug dealing operation for a long period of time.

He added: "It's my public duty to impose an immediate prison sentence because I have to have regard not just to your involvement and future rehabilitation, but also to the broader public interest, part of which is to deter those who might be tempted to break the law in the way you did."