A judge has launched a fierce attack on three “insurgents” who unleashed “vile poisons” including heroin and cocaine on Norwich’s streets.
Judge Andrew Shaw lashed out verbally at the trio of drug dealers as he sentenced them to long stretches behind bars.
And he heaped praise on the heads of the undercover police officers who risked their lives to bring them to justice.
Police executed 17 warrants at addresses across Norwich and in the London area between March 16 and April 2 this year to disrupt the supply of Class A drugs in Norfolk.
A large quantity of heroin and crack cocaine was seized by officers during the crackdown on county lines drugs supply in Norwich, in a sting codenamed Operation Hartfield.
This week three of those arrested were sentenced to a total of more than 12 years in prison.
Christian Pratt, 25, from London, was jailed for five years having previously admitted two counts of conspiring to supply class A drugs, two counts of supplying class A drugs and two counts of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.
Favourette Donga, 22, of Knowland Grove, Norwich, was jailed for four years two months having admitted two counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs as well as two counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs, two counts of supplying a controlled drug of class A, a further count of supplying a controlled drug of class A and assaulting an emergency worker.
Gary Carver, 48, of Magdalen Street, Norwich, got three years after admitting four counts of supplying class A drugs.
Alan Norris, prosecuting, told Norwich Crown Court it was a “street dealing operation” involving a number of defendants including Pratt, who was the “London end of the operation” and the “insurgent into Norwich”.
Judge Andrew Shaw hailed the officers who “put their lives at risk on an almost daily basis” to “rid the streets of these vile poisons”.
Two other defendants, Leysha Bangura, 20, of Edinburgh Road, Norwich, and Jennifer Dagless, 39, of Marshall Road, Norwich are to be sentenced next month after they admitted drugs offences after also being arrested as part of the operation.
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