A teenager who was locked up after he was caught dealing drugs as part of a major police investigation is back behind bars.

Francisco Carnide, now 19, was sentenced to 33 months detention in August last year after being caught dealing drugs as part of Norfolk Constabulary's high profile Operation Granary crackdown.

Norwich Crown Court heard that Carnide was on licence after being released from that sentence when, on July 23 this year, he was chased on foot by police who detained him in Wessex Street in Norwich.

Carnide had discarded a bag before he was caught, but it was later tracked down by officers located and found to contain crack cocaine estimated to be worth about £400.

Three mobile phones were also found as well as £50 in cash.

Carnide, of no fixed abode, appeared at Norwich Crown Court on Thursday (September 12) to be sentenced after having previously admitted possession with intent to supply a controlled drug of class A.

Judge Stephen Holt told Carnide that, given that he had been on licence for his previous offence when he was arrested, that immediate custody was the only sentence he could pass.

The judge warned him that a third conviction for class A drug offences would leave him facing a minimum sentence of seven years.

He sentenced Carnide to three years custody, indicating that he would serve half of that sentence.

David Stewart, mitigating, said his early guilty plea was his greatest mitigation for the young man, who was just 18 at the time of the offence.

He read an extract from a letter Carnide had written to the judge expressing his apologies for what happened and insisted he now wanted to better himself.

Mr Stewart said that Carnide knew he was to receive a reasonable sentence and was looking to take courses while in custody.

He said he wanted to try and "turn his life around".

As previously reported, in the spring of 2018, Norfolk police made a series of co-ordinated interventions targeted at 'county lines' networks dealing Class A drugs - heroin and crack cocaine - on the streets of Norwich.

That operation was carried out as part of the police's long-term Operation Gravity crackdown on county lines drugs dealers.