Man jailed for county lines drug dealing in Harrogate
47 year-old Mark Richard Bowden was arrested in December 2020.
Last updated 23rd Dec 2021
A man from Harrogate's been jailed for seven and a half years for county lines drug dealing.
47 year-old Mark Richard Bowden, of Cheltenham Crescent, pleaded guilty to seven offences of supplying heroin and cocaine - at York Magistrates’ Court earlier this month.
Officers caught him dealing drugs from his car in Harrogate in December last year.
Bowden was also instructed by the court to forfeit £1,500 which is believed to be from the sale of heroin on the streets of Harrogate.
PC Michael Haydock, who led the Operation Expedite County Lines Team investigation, said: “The criminal actions of Bowden and other drug dealers like him are truly deplorable.
“Motivated only by greed to make cash through the exploitation of often young and vulnerable drug-users, they think they can operate without impunity or just receive a ‘slap on the wrist’ from the authorities if caught.
“Well, for Bowden, he can now think again. This substantial custodial sentence will hopefully hit him with an equally substantial dose of reality of the repercussions of dealing Class A drugs in our neighbourhoods.
“We will not tolerate it and will act on any information or intelligence about such activity to tackle the scourge of drugs, which can cause so much harm to individuals and to communities as a whole.”