A MIRFIELD joiner with a cocaine habit is today starting a nine-year jail sentence after being caught acting as a willing lieutenant for a dangerous West Yorkshire drug dealer.

Adam Ashton, 28, helped convicted dealer John Waters supply cocaine to undercover police officers during a covert operation aimed at flushing out Waters. The pair were both arrested in February after a £3,500 drugs deal.

Prosecutor Nikki Peers told Bradford Crown Court how 40-year-old Waters, of Far Highfield Close, Idle, Bradford, was arrested from the driver’s seat of his Range Rover Sport vehicle while Ashton made a run for it, but was tackled to the ground by an off-duty police officer.

Armed response officers who had stopped Waters’ Range Rover as it drove along Huddersfield Road towards Mirfield then searched Ashton and found him in possession of a loaded 9mm semi-automatic handgun.

Although Ashton refused to say who the gun belonged to and did not produce it during his arrest, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC described it as a lethal weapon which was the favoured handgun of drug dealers because it was small, light and easily concealed.

The court heard that Waters and Ashton, of The Maltings, Mirfield, had been ripping off their intended customers by substituting cutting agents for the real cocaine.

Judge Durham Hall said: “It is, of course, the fact that these undercover officers, who I have commended, were putting their lives at risk.

“They must have known the possibility and they did their duty.’’

Judge Durham Hall said yesterday that Waters, who was jailed earlier this month for 14 years for drug dealing and firearms offences, was in charge from start to finish, but Ashton – himself a heavy drug user – had associated with him either for money or possibly for excitement or status.

The court heard how Ashton had supplied various amounts of cocaine to the undercover officers between December and February.

The judge said Ashton appeared to have been impressed or beguiled by Waters.

“You, at that time, were associating with somebody who, in my judgement, is a very serious and wicked criminal in this area,’’ said the judge.

“He was clearly a violent, dangerous drug-dealing criminal.’’

The police investigation, which was part of the highly successful Operation Greystoke, culminated in the pair’s arrests in February.

Judge Durham Hall described Ashton as “the fall guy’’ and his barrister, Andrew Dallas, said he had played a subordinate role.

Mr Dallas submitted that while Ashton was keen to “talk big’’ he was essentially motivated by his own expensive weekend cocaine habit.

He said Ashton was a hard-working and highly thought of joiner who intended to move abroad once he had served his sentence.

Ashton admitted possessing the prohibited firearm, having ammunition without a firearms certificate and various drugs supply offences.

Judge Durham Hall noted that just a few weeks before he started supplying the undercover officers, Ashton had been given a community order for possessing cannabis with intent to supply.

He told Ashton: “You were prepared to play your part and, above all, you were prepared, on behalf of another, to take to that final deal in Mr Waters’ fancy Range Rover a loaded semi-automatic handgun.

“Again you were taking all the risk but you were prepared to do it.’’

The judge said Ashton was “a willing lieutenant’’ who fell into the most evil company.