Dealer jailed over role in £280k drugs operation

A drug dealer who tried to escape during a raid was involved in an illegal operation estimated to be worth about £280,000, police have said.

Abdulaziz Haruna, 26, "came crashing through the door" in an attempt to evade arrest when officers searched his home in Sheffield last year, according to South Yorkshire Police.

During several raids, officers found evidence of an active drugs line called "MO" which suggested Haruna was involved in dealing heroin and crack cocaine "on a large scale", a force spokesperson said.

At Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, Haruna was jailed for seven years and three months after pleading guilty to possession with intent to supply class A drugs.

South Yorkshire Police said officers searched Haruna's home on Middlewood Drive East in February and May 2023 and found slips of paper advertising the drugs line.

During the raid in May, officers forced entry to the property with a chainsaw and said Haruna "came crashing through the door" in an attempt to escape.

Haruna, who was arrested and treated for injuries caused by glass, was later found to have posted pictures to his Snapchat account where he posed with large amounts of cash.

Speaking after Friday's sentencing hearing, Det Con Darcy Hope said: "Haruna denied any wrongdoing when we initially searched his home in February 2023.

"But his desperate attempt to escape arrest during our second visit - in which he seriously endangered his own safety - suggested otherwise.

"This has been a complex investigation involving numerous lines of inquiry which led to us being able to expose Haruna's role in a sophisticated drug dealing enterprise."

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