Liverpool man jailed for Cornwall and Cumbria county lines gang

A drug dealer who ran operations at both ends of England's west coast has been jailed for four and a half years.

Kieran Kristensen, 23, from Liverpool, admitted supplying class A drugs in Cumbria and Cornwall when he appeared at Carlisle Crown Court.

He was arrested three days after taking over a county lines operation in Kendal when his predecessor was jailed.

While he was on bail for that offence, he began dealing crack cocaine and heroin in Cornwall.

The court heard Kristensen held a phone which sent out "text bombs" to advertise drugs.

He took over the Cumbria operation just two hours after his predecessor, 19-year-old Michael Taylor from Liverpool, was found hiding in a broom cupboard at a Kendal flat in December 2019.

Taylor was jailed for three years earlier in 2022.

Three days after Taylor's arrest, police raided a home on Capper Close in Kendal where they found Kristensen, who had £1,400 in cash on him.

He was arrested and bailed but in early 2021 Kristensen returned to so-called county lines crime in Cornwall, running a phone line known as "Scouse Deano".

"The conspiracy took the usual form with the text bombing of multiple Cornwall-based drug users offering crack cocaine and heroin," prosecutor Tim Evans said.

Kristensen, who was jailed for 27 months in 2020 for other drugs offences in Cornwall, admitted conspiring to supply class A drugs for three days in Kendal, and offering to supply them in Cornwall during a two-month period.

In mitigation, Anthony O'Donohoe said of his client's offending: "The reasons behind it are the lack of opportunities this man has had in his life. Difficulties with his education, being permanently excluded; he has never had a proper job, never been properly trained."

Kristensen, of Maldon Close, Liverpool, received a 54-month sentence for his crimes.

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