Drugs trio ‘could have flooded our streets with crystal meth’

Jabbar Hyder, Christian Allday and Thomas Cadden were producing the potentially lethal drug, which is more potent than cocaine and heroin but rarely found in the UK, “on an industrial scale”.

Police raided an industrial unit in Dewsbury and found more than 27 kilos of the drug after being tipped off by a supplier of laboratory grade chemicals which Hyder had been using to source his materials.

Though the crystal meth found was of a low quality, police say the men had the capacity to flood Yorkshire with millions of pounds of the illegal substance.

The drugs had been diluted with caffeine and packed into heat-sealed packs in the unit at Hoyle Head Mills, Earlsheaton, which Allday had rented on the pretence of using it for spray-painting cars.

The trio were yesterday given a total prison sentence of 19 years and four months at Leeds Crown Court. Judge Guy Kearl told Hyder: “You used your business as a cover to order the chemicals and to rent the industrial unit.”

Hyder, 31, of Textile Street, Dewsbury, and Allday, 29, of Rockhall Close, Birstall, received terms of nine-and-a-half years and seven years and four months respectively after admitting conspiring to produce crystal meth.

Cadden, 21, of Savile Street, Dewsbury, was jailed for two-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to being concerned in the production of the drug, also known as methylamphetamine.

Prosecutors said the supplier, ReAgent, noticed that a number of “suspicious orders” had been placed by Hyder for delivery to his car wash Hotspot, in Bradford Road, Dewsbury.

Allday, a friend of Hyder’s who visited to use the computers, persuaded an employee to order chemicals using his own bank account in 2011 after claiming he was having trouble with his bank.

Staff at ReAgent called the police when a man calling himself Mr Hyder rang to complain that some ammonia he had been supplied with did not smell like ammonia and demanded a pure version of the substance.

An iPad showing a web page with information about how to make crystal meth was found at the home of Hyder, who is currently serving a four-year sentence for conspiring to supply cannabis and possession of prohibited weapons and ammunition.

The fingerprints of all three defendants were found on items at the industrial unit where the drug was being manufactured. Crystal meth, which is made through heating several chemicals together using a condenser, is normally manufactured in the form of dry powders or in pure crystals. One hit of the stimulant can give users a ‘high’ lasting 12 hours.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Jeffrey of Kirklees Police said: “The facility set up by Hyder was, we believe, the first of its kind in the Yorkshire and Humber region and had the capacity to flood the streets of our region and other parts of the country with millions of pounds worth of methylamphetamine.

“I welcome the strong convictions given to these individuals and want to praise the work of specialist officers from Kirklees and elsewhere in the force who worked to unmask this drugs conspiracy and put these individuals behind bars.”

Senior Crown Prosecutor Julian Briggs said crystal meth was “a highly dangerous drug, more addictive even than heroin”. He said: “This was a vast quantity, capable of blighting the lives of a great many individuals. Thankfully, it never found its way onto the streets of West Yorkshire.”