DRUG CZAR `SHOCKED' BY YOUNG DEALER

The UK's drug czar, Keith Hellawell, said he was shocked but not surprised
by the case of a 13-year-old drug dealer given a two-year detention
sentence.

The teenager was 12 when caught with a packet of sweets in one pocket and
drugs and cash in another.

The youth stood crying in the dock at Inner London Crown Court on Friday as
a "horrified and sad" Judge Quentin Campbell said he had no option but to
lock him up.

Mr Hellawell said his 10-year drugs strategy should help tackle the UK's
drugs trade.

He told BBC Radio's Today programme the strategy had twin aims: stopping
drugs coming into the UK and reducing demand for drugs by offering more
treatment for addicts and users.

"We're already beginning to see signs of success," he said.

The 13-year-old drug dealer was convicted last September of possessing
heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply.

The judge said the jury had "quite rightly" rejected his defence of duress.
"Crack cocaine and heroin are the two most common ... and most dangerous
class A drugs that are available," he said.

While he accepted the child was not the "prime mover" in the drug dealing,
there was no doubt he was a "perfectly willing participant".

The court was told how the child - acquitted at another court recently of
two counts of robbery - was spotted cycling with a 15-year-old youth by four
plain clothes police officers in south London.

Drugs stash found

He tried to run away but was caught and found with 18 rocks of crack cocaine
and two wraps of heroin worth A3500 in his trouser pocket.

Beneath them was UKP400 cash.

More crack cocaine, a small amount of cannabis and a further A31,600 was
found shortly afterwards at a friend's flat, which the boy had moved into
after a row with his mother.

The 15-year-old was also arrested, but was not charged through lack of
evidence.

The judge warned the boy, who has dropped out of school, that he would have
faced five years' imprisonment had he been an adult.

"I make no further comment as to whether anybody is to blame that no
educational authority took up the fact that you were not effectively going
to school at all."

Screamed for his mother

As the door leading to the cells was opened, the youngster turned towards
his mother and began screaming that he wanted to see her.

Detective Constable Ian Dickson, said the case saddened the officers working
on it.

None of them had ever heard of anyone so young being convicted of dealing in
Class A drugs, he added.

After the verdict the youngster's mother, 41, said that while she felt
"terrible", nothing about her son's behaviour aroused any suspicions.

She insisted he was a "happy-go-lucky" individual who simply got mixed up
with "unsavoury underworld types" at a club and was "led astray".