A teenager arrested and bailed for peddling heroin in Oxford was then caught running a drugs line 70 miles away.

Subhaan Rasool-Ahmed, 18, had hoped to support his family in the wake of his father’s murder in 2019.

But he was twice caught with drugs or cash on him and even used his drugs line phone to call his mum.

Now, he has been jailed for five years. And an Oxford judge warned the teen he faces seven years if he’s caught dealing again.

The East London youth was seen by police officers emerging from a house in Cowley Road on September 2 last year. He was joined by an addict known to the officers.

When the police officers approached them, Rasool-Ahmed, then aged just 17, put something into his mouth and gave false details.

Concerned he may have swallowed drugs, the teen was taken to hospital. Inside the house, police found £515 in cash and more than 200 wraps of heroin worth around £2,120 on the street. His phone contained 360 text messages setting up drug deals.

He was interviewed and provided a prepared statement saying he was being forced to deal drugs.

In the new year, while on bail waiting for his trial on the Oxford drug dealing allegations and still aged only 17, Rasool-Ahmed set up and managed the ‘Jimmy’ drugs line in Stevenage, Herts.

Oxford Crown Court heard he operated the line from his home in East London, travelling to the Hertfordshire town for the day or staying overnight.

He was able to build his client base – addicts who were receiving advertising text messages from the ‘Jimmy’ line phone – from 110 in January to 160 addicts in March.

He continued to deal heroin and cocaine despite being stopped by the police in mid-January with £690 cash found in his car. Rasool-Ahmed was released by the police, then arrested on March 30 when he was stopped in a car with £80-worth of crack and heroin.

Detectives arrested him again in July. Messages on his phone pointed to him being heavily involved in County Lines drug dealing. Rasool-Ahmed had also used his drugs phone to phone his mum.

Jailing him for five years, Judge Nigel Daly told the teen: “Just a warning: you now have two convictions for possession with intent to supply class A [drugs] or being concerned in the supply of class A and that means that if you get another conviction the starting point – the minimum, not just the starting point – the minimum sentence is seven years.”

Rasool-Ahmed, of Withy Mead, Chingford, was found guilty at the magistrates’ court of possession with intent to supply class A drugs and possession of criminal property. He admitted two counts of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.

Mitigating, Gareth James said his client was recruited by a London drugs gang at the age of 17 and employed as their runner in Oxford.

Gangs did ‘not take kindly’ to people losing their drugs, as Rasool-Ahmed had done when he was arrested by Thames Valley Police, and he came under pressure to run the operation in Stevenage.

The youngster’s father had been murdered in Pakistan in 2019. “That has led him into feeling some responsibility to support his family and some need to make money,” Mr James said.

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