West Bromwich man locked up for dealing drugs containing highly dangerous synthetic opioid

Leon Brown, of Baker Street, was arrested in the Bretforton area, near Evesham, on August 3 as part of an operation by the South Worcestershire County Lines team.

The 35-year-old was sentenced to a total of more than seven years at Worcester Crown Court on Thursday.

The sentencing was for five years and seven months to run concurrently for two counts of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs.

He was further sentenced to one month to run concurrently for one count of possession of a Class B drug and four months concurrent for possession of criminal property.

Brown was also ordered to serve a consecutive custodial term of 18 months for breaching a suspended sentence order, bringing his total term to just over seven years.

Detective Sergeant Luke Papps, of the South Worcestershire County Lines Team, said: “Bringing Brown to justice is a great result in our ongoing efforts to tackle county lines drug dealing, taking a serious offender off the streets of Evesham following some good investigative work by our officers."

DS Papps added the fact the drugs were mixed with Nitazene - man-made drugs often sold as heroin, or mixed in with it but which are in fact a synthetic opioid significantly stronger than heroin - was used as a serious aggravating factor in the judge’s sentencing.

“The danger with these synthetic opioids is they look exactly like heroin but nitazenes, for example, are significantly stronger than heroin so there is clearly an increased risk to the user,” he said.

“We will not cease in our mission to get dealers like Brown off the streets of South Worcestershire and urge anyone with information about such criminal activity to report it to us so we can investigate.”