A Bradford rioter who turned to peddling hard drugs has been jailed for three years.

Zaheer Bashir, 27, became a significant local dealer, supplying heroin and crack cocaine, but was caught after the Bradford District Drugs Team mounted a series of operations during which almost £35,000 of drugs was seized.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that quantities of class A drugs were recovered from five addresses in Bradford and Hipperholme, between December 2004 and November last year.

Almost £10,000 worth of crack and £4,000 worth of heroin was seized from an address in Broadgate House in Bradford, and 200 wraps of crack cocaine, worth almost £12,000, were recovered from Bashir's home in Lane Ends Green, Hipperholme, the court heard.

Bashir, who had been found guilty of riot and sentenced to four years and three months in 2002, was told by the judge, Recorder Simon Myerson, QC, he could have faced six years behind bars, but he was prepared to reduce the sentence because of his guilty plea.

Bashir and his co-accused, Nicola Dunne, 26, also of Lane Ends Green, Hipperholme, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs at a hearing in February. Dunne was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to take part in a drug rehabilitation programme.

Bashir's barrister, Jonathon Gibson, said his client had got involved in drug dealing because of a drug debt of more than £10,000,.

Recorder Myerson made confiscation orders against both defendants relating to £1,300 in cash seized by police.

The judge also praised the District Drugs Team's "careful and detailed operation".

He said: "There is little doubt the drugs team's intervention made Bradford a safer place."

e-mail: steve.wright @bradford.newsquest.co.uk