Drug dealer's ex spared jail by 'skin of her teeth'

GANG EXPOLITED VULNERABLE KIDS

- LYELL TWEED

TWO men have been jailed for exploiting vulnerable 16-year-olds to deal crack cocaine and heroin more than 100 miles away.

The ex-girlfriend of one of the dealers who ferried a boy to and from Greater Manchester avoided being locked up by the 'skin of her teeth'

Jamie Upton set up a drugs line in Hull in March 2020, transporting heroin and crack cocaine between there and Manchester, to make 'easy money, having originally come to Newton Heath from the Republic of Ireland.

He had taken control of the county lines operation from a male known as 'David' and was taking direction from him, prosecutor Maria Brannan told the court.

In March 2020, Upton, 25, texted his then girlfriend, Jamie Georgia Burns, telling her he was going Upton to Hull 'for a while' claiming he could make £3,000 a month. "I need to do anything at the moment," he said.

He went to a property in the Beverley Road area of Hull late in March to set-up operations, texting Burns, 22, that the 'gaff was hanging!

Days after this he travelled to the property with a 16-year-old by train where the teen was expected to live in the 'unsanitary living conditions for the purpose of selling drugs, Ms Brannan told Bolton Crown Court.

On April 17 that year the Hull property was raided by police, who knew it to be used for the supply of drugs.