A teenager has been jailed after a drugs gang from London sent him to deal crack cocaine and heroin to "vulnerable drug-addicted" people in Swadlincote.

George Lopes, 18, was sent from the capital to run an operation to sell drugs to people in and around the town, Derby Crown Court heard.

Lopes was arrested in January after he targeted a woman living in a flat in Lanes End, Newhall, and officers found him with wraps of almost 70 per cent pure crack cocaine.

He was released under investigation from that offence and went back to London but returned to South Derbyshire in March where he ran from officers carrying out a second raid at an address in Midland Road, Swadlincote.

He was captured in a nearby park where more wraps of crack cocaine and heroin were found in his jacket.

George Lopes was sent to sell the drugs in Swadlincote
George Lopes was sent to sell the drugs in Swadlincote

Sarah Allen, prosecuting, said police raided the Newhall property on January 12 and found Lopes, of Pymmes Brook House, Colney Heath, London, lying on a bed.

She said alongside him was a Prada bag containing 39 wraps of crack cocaine and £304.65 in cash.

Miss Allen said after being released under investigation police then raided the Midland Road flat on March 19 where Lopes fled from them.

She said: "These are addresses which are being 'cuckooed' by bigger gangs from larger cities who are running a drugs operation from the homes of vulnerable people they have targeted.

"It is believed this operation is from London."

Kevin Waddingham, mitigating, said his client arrived in the UK from Angola when he was a young child and his family settled in north London.

He said: "The question is how did he get into this mess?

"He is clever, having completed a creative media course and he has a sister at university.

"He started smoking cannabis and accrued debts with the negative peer group he was mixing with.

"Pressure was applied, threats were made and to pay off these debts he was transported to Derbyshire to sell drugs.

"He was exploited by those higher up the chain."

Lopes pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine and one count of possessing criminal property.

Judge Jonathan Bennett sentenced him to three years in a young offenders' institution.

The case was heard at Derby Crown Court

The judge said: "This is something we have heard about the last few years, particularly recently.

"It is called a 'county line operation' or 'cuckooing' whereby a gang from a larger city such as London, Nottingham or Birmingham create a drugs market in towns like Swadlincote or Burton.

"What the gangs need is a location so they take advantage of vulnerable people who have serious addictions to drugs and that is a feature in this case.

"On both occasions you took over flats of vulnerable people and ran the enterprise from there.

"It seems to me that you too are vulnerable here as you are only 18, moving to the UK from Angola with your family as a young child.

"But, having been arrested the first time, you had the chance to break free from this but you didn't, you returned to Swadlincote just two months later and took over a second property doing the same thing."