A DRUG dealer jailed for trafficking heroin and crack cocaine to undercover police officers is back in prison after committing almost identical offences following his release.

Ahmed Moshen, 22, of Munnings Drive, Newport, was on licence when he sold to a covert team operating in the Pill area of the city.

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Cardiff Crown Court heard how the defendant scorned a fellow gang member who told him he was selling to undercover police.

Ieuan Bennett, prosecuting, said: “He was warned, ‘They are feds.’ But he ignored them and gestured for the officer to come.

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“He told him, ‘He’s mine. I have been seeing him all week.’”

The defendant then handed over two wraps of heroin with a purity of 35 per cent in exchange for £20.

Moshen was snared as a result of Gwent Police’s Operation Solar which has seen more than a dozen drug dealers caught and jailed.

Mr Bennett told the court how the defendant had committed the offences just after his release from a 28-month custodial sentence imposed in 2018.

Moshen admitted two counts of supplying crack cocaine, one count of supplying heroin and a single charge of being concerned in the supply of heroin.

The four offences were committed between December 2019 and January 2020.

Harry Baker, mitigating, said his client had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and had been held in custody since his arrest in June 2020.

He added: “The defendant is still a young man who wants to stay away from what he’s been doing before.”

His barrister urged the court to suspend the inevitable prison sentence.

Judge Richard Williams told Moshen: “You were actively dealing both heroin and crack cocaine while you were on licence.

“You were at the bottom end of the chain and you were likely selling on the direction of others.

“You have a previous conviction for trafficking heroin and crack cocaine.”

The defendant was jailed for two years and 10 months and was ordered to pay a victim surcharge after his release.

Judge Williams warned him he would face a minimum sentence of seven years in prison should he be caught dealing class A drugs for a third time.