Jail for drug dealer who boasted of crimes in internet rap videos

A YORKSHIRE drug dealer who posted a number of amateur rap videos on the internet boasting of his criminal prowess has been jailed for seven years.

Steven Campbell, 38, of Lowerhouses, Huddersfield, who filmed numerous videos of himself posing in a white mask with bundles of cash and bragging about his gang connections and violence, was found to have stashed nearly £100,000 of drugs at the home of a single mother in nearby Dalton when it was raided by police.

He was arrested beside seven others for a range of offences including conspiracy to supply or possess class A, B and C drugs, money laundering and theft, as part of a long-running West Yorkshire Police investigation into drug trafficking and firearm supply which led to 27 search warrants being executed across Kirklees and Calderdale.

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Sentencing at Bradford Crown Court yesterday, Judge John Potter said Campbell, a former car dealer who had served prison terms for wounding and robbery in the 1990s, had exploited others including 24-year-old mother Stephanie Harmon who had been unaware of the type and quantity of drugs being left at her home.

“Your activity can properly be described as professional drug dealing leaving a trail of misery and harm in your wake,” he said. “You Steven Campbell, in my judgement, deliberately exploited others and involved them in your activity.”

Prosecutor Richard Walters said the £94,000 drug stash included around £17,000 of cocaine including some packages in a locked strong box which were found to be 77 per cent pure.

Officers also recovered £11,500 of controversial former legal high mephedrone, a bag containing more than 15,000 so-called ‘pink cherub’ tablets, a further 1.75 kilogrammes of the “pink cherub” drug worth more than £26,000 and around 700 grammes of a bulking agent.

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Campbell pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply Class A, B and C drugs alongside Stephanie Harmon, of Harp Inge, Dalton, his former partner Harriet Sunderland, 26, of Tillotson Avenue, Sowerby Bridge, and her brother Scott Sunderland 28, of Calder grove, Mytholmroyd.

His three accomplices were sentenced to 51 weeks in prison suspended for 2 years each, with Harmon and Scott Sunderland ordered to complete 450 hours of community service between them.

Christopher Tehrani, for Campbell, said his mother was a social worker and had done her best with her children, but after he left home at the age of 20 he went off the rails.

He said Campbell now had a number of children himself, and wanted to be back with them after his release to make sure they did not make the same mistakes he had.

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Speaking outside court, Detective Inspector Neil Hollis of West Yorkshire Police’s crime division, said: “It’s clear from the evidence that Campbell was the leader of this criminal enterprise despite presenting himself as a car dealer.

“He did buy and sell the odd car, however this was merely a front to legitimise his drug dealing activities.

“He used his then girlfriend Harriet Sunderland and also Harmon to store the drugs and broker deals for him in order to appear as a legitimate business man.

“Campbell is a negative role model and his prison sentence reflects the severity of his crimes and I hope will be some comfort to those people who have suffered at his hands.”