'Ruthless' Bradford drug kingpins jailed for 25 years over cocaine supply chain

Asad Javed and Imran Khan were the final two to be brought to justice by Operation Stalebank, a major undercover police crackdown on street drug dealing in the city last year.

The initiative, that has seen 119 drug dealers put behind bars for a total of 364 years, was today described by Bradford's leading judge, Judge Roger Thomas QC, as the biggest operation of its type he had ever seen.

Javed, 28, of Ashfield Drive, Frizinghall, Bradford, and Khan, of Hartman Place, Heaton, Bradford, pleaded guilty to two offences of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and an offence of trying to reduce their jail sentences by plotting from Leeds Prison to pervert the course of public justice.

Judge Thomas told the pair: “You were supplying drugs with ruthlessness and enthusiasm. You cared not a jot about the people you were supplying to.

“You were effectively at the top of the tree for this enterprise.”

The pair involved Javed's brothers Saqib Javed and Amer Javed, Khan's girlfriend, Karen Dejong, and her lodger, Lauren Shaw, in a "ham fisted" charade to plant drugs and guns for the police to "find" in a bid to curry favour and cut their inevitable long prison terms.

Asad Javed and Khan were each jailed for ten years for the drugs conspiracies, with two and a half years, to run consecutively, for conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice.

Amer Javed, 35, of Ashfield Drive, was locked up for seven and a half years for possession with intent to supply 20 wraps of Class A drugs, found in a Kinder egg at his home, and conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice.

Saqib Javed, 38, also of Ashfield Drive, was jailed for four years for that conspiracy.

Dejong, 41, of Staveley Road, Ingrow, Keighley, was imprisoned for 18 months for that offence and Shaw, 27, of the same address, was sentenced to 18 months, suspended for two years, with 120 hours of unpaid work.

Prosecutor Jonathan Sharp told Bradford Crown Court that Asad Javed and Khan directed an extensive and highly profitable five month conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine to addicts on the streets of Bradford.

The chocolates tin that contained the hidden heroin

They ran the "Saj" line, delivering wraps of drugs, often in minutes, to waiting customers.

Undercover police officers posed as addicts to lure drugs runners to delivery points, usually in the West Bowling and Manningham areas.

The court heard that officer "Mick" was so successful in gaining the team's trust that he was invited on a trip in the car from which Javed and Khan were conducting the day’s deliveries.

The "Saj" line was inactive only when Javed and Khan took a fortnight's holiday in Dubai.

They were both arrested in June last year but continued to operate on police bail.

The imitation Walther pistol

Mr Sharp said drugs runners working for Javed and Khan were caught with up to 50 wraps of heroin and cocaine on them, indicating that they were expecting to make multiple daily deliveries.

When the pair were arrested in September 2013, they hatched the plot to plant drugs and firearms and lead the police to them.

But the conspirators fell out and the plan went badly wrong.

Khan led the police to a relatively small quantity of extremely weak heroin, hidden in a chocolates box, and an imitation Walther pistol and, when Javed went out, he could find nothing at all.

Judge Thomas, Recorder of Bradford, said Operation Stalebank had caused considerable disruption to the availability of Class A drugs on Bradford's streets.

Andrew Dinning, Senior Crown Prosecutor, CPS Yorkshire and Humberside, said: “Drugs blight individuals and communities. Much of this activity happened blatantly, in the heart of our communities; near to gyms and football grounds, mosques and schools.

“An extensive drug supply and distribution network has been disrupted. These dangerous criminals are now behind bars and the streets of Bradford are safer as a result."

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