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A drug dealer sold crack and heroin using a “Rocky” phone line in a bid to pay off his debts, a court heard. Adnan Salah, 21, of The Rock, Bury, used the phone line to send out more than 400 “burst” messages about the sale of hard drugs at the bidding of those above him in the supply chain. Bolton Crown Court heard how Salah had built up around £2,000 worth of debt through cannabis use and was told to work on a drugs phone line, dubbed the Rocky line, to pay it off.
Prosecutor Wayne Jackson said: “He did at the time have use of the Rocky line.” He added: “He was given an opportunity to pay off some of the debt by manning the phone.” The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Anthony Moss) Mr Jackson told the court how the Rocky line was used as “basically an advertisement to those who seek to buy drugs".
Salah was involved in the drugs line selling heroin and crack cocaine between June 12, 2023 and October 30, 2023 but this was ended by a police raid on November 27 this year. Though the officers did not find Salah himself during the raid they found a mobile phone with SIM cards linked to drug messages. Salah then arrived at Bury Police Station voluntarily the next day where he denied his crimes and gave no comment to all further questions put to him.
But he pleaded guilty to two counts of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs around seven months before his trial was due to take place. Mr Jackson said he accepted that Salah was “immature” when he committed his crimes, at the age of just 20. He said: “It is accepted that males don’t mature until the age of 25.
“I’m not sure where that information comes from, but it must have been researched." Jessie Swift, defending, said that Salah, who has no previous convictions deserved credit for having admitted his guilt before a trial was needed to take place. She said that he had been “exploited” by those higher up the criminal chain than him and that he was sorry for what he had done.
Ms Swift said that Salah had expressed remorse and had not committed any other crimes in the years since his arrest. ALSO READ: Drug deaths reach record high ALSO READ: New figures show rise in drug treatment deaths ALSO READ: Victims of crime 'denied justice' amid staggering court case backlogs Judge Rachel Galloway said that the now 21-year-old had accepted that he was using the “Rocky line” to sell drugs but noted his £2,000 worth of debt. She said that Salah had built up these debts trying to fee his own drug habit but said that he had shown signs that he was capable of being rehabilitated.
Judge Galloway sentenced him to two years in a young offenders’ institute, suspended for two years, and ordered him to complete a 12-month community order. She also ordered Salah to complete a 12-month drug rehabilitation activity requirement with 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 150 hours of unpaid work..
