TWO drug dealers have been jailed for supplying cocaine and heroin to officers working undercover in Newport as part of a major police operation.

Saif Ali, aged 22, was involved in three sales of drugs to officers in the space of just 16 days last autumn, Newport Crown Court heard.

And teenager Shaquille Crosdale delivered a wrap of crack cocaine on his bicycle to officers who had arranged a telephone deal last November.

Both were caught as part of Operation Jewel, a Gwent Police operation to address the supply of class A drugs in the city. Both pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

Newport Crown Court was told that Ali, who lives in the city, had been on bail for other drug offences - for which he was subsequently jailed for three years - when he committed these crimes.

Prosecuting counsel Jason Howells said that on October 10 last year, undercover police officers had seen him passing drugs over in a deal, and a week later they talked to him regarding the purchase of some crack cocaine.

He directed them to Portland Street in the Pill area of the city, where he handed over a wrap at a cost of £35.

Other deals involving heroin and cocaine were completed between Ali and the officers on October 31 and November 1, and he was then arrested.

Judge Daniel Williams was told that Ali had been immature, but that his family is trying to set up a legitimate business for him to run when he gets out of prison.

Mr Howells said that Crosdale, aged 18, of Fleetwood Close, Newport, had been one of two people who turned up on bikes to deliver a wrap of crack cocaine behind the Excelsior Club on Corporation Road, Newport, early in the afternoon of November 25, last year.

The meeting had been arranged after the officers, again acting undercover, had made an arrangement to buy the drugs two days before, and had been given a telephone number to call to complete the deal.

The court was told that Crosdale had lost his job and had felt he was letting his mother down by not bringing money in, but had sought the wrong means of obtaining it.

Judge Williams sentenced Ali to six months in prison for each of the three offences of supplying a class A drug, to run concurrently.

But this six-month sentence will be served consecutively to his current three-year sentence.

He sentenced Crosdale to a term of two years and four months in a young offenders’ institution.