Teen Leeds dealer who started new life in York 'drawn back to Little London'
A teenage dealer who moved to York to start a new life was caught at a house in Leeds armed with a machete and surrounded by thousands of pounds worth of drugs.
Igor Tavares-Manuel was jailed for more than four years after Leeds Crown Court heard that he was already under investigation for dealing.
Plain-clothes officers had chased him in York in March 2023 after he ran from them. He dumped a bag of drugs before being arrested.
Officers found the package that contained more than 350 deals of crack cocaine and heroin, with a potential street value of more than £2,500.
He also had a kitchen knife on him. He was only 17 at the time.
He gave a no-comment interview and was later released under investigation.
But on May 26 of this year, police attended a property on Johnston Street in Woodhouse on an unrelated matter.
They found Tavares-Miguel in the property and holding a mobile phone that was “ringing constantly”, prosecutor Emily Thorbjornsen told the court.
He then tried to run but with both doors covered by officers, he was detained. He had a machete in the waistband of his trousers.
More than £2,500 worth of heroin and crack cocaine were recovered. There was also 115 canisters of nitrous oxide found, worth around £2,300. He also had around £100 of cannabis.
He gave a no-comment interview to police.
Tavares-Miguel, of Scaife Gardens, York, admitted two counts of dealing in Class A drugs from the York arrest in 2023, and two count of dealing in Class A drugs, one of supplying nitrous oxide and possession of cannabis.
Mitigating, Stuart Field said Tavares-Miguel had found himself in trouble growing up in Little London so his family moved to York for a new life.
He said he became a bricklayer, left to join art college but felt he did not fit in. He said he “drifted towards drug dealing”, claiming there had been threats of violence from old acquaintances.
He said that the 2023 arrest “should have been a shot across his bow” but it failed to deter him and he “renewed his links with Little London”.
Mr Field added: “There were choices he could have made and all were the wrong ones.”
Judge Simon Batiste acknowledged he was still only 19, and had been 17 at the time of the York offences, but said it had to be immediate custody.
He jailed him for four-and-a-half years.