A CAREER criminal with 100 offences to his name is back in prison after being caught working as the “middle man” for crack cocaine and heroin dealers.

Craig Sheen, 35, from Newport, sold class A drugs to undercover police officers involved in a covert sting operation.

Prosecutor Gareth James said the defendant had a previous trafficking conviction for possession of cannabis with intent to supply.

Newport Crown Court heard how Sheen supplied crack cocaine with a purity of 79 per cent to undercover cops near the city’s Lilleshall Street.

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A few days later he introduced officers to a drug dealer when they said they wanted to buy heroin.

The defendant sold crack cocaine to the officers for the second time near Clarence Place.

Sheen, of Chepstow Road, pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying crack cocaine and one of being concerned in the supply of heroin.

The offences were committed between December 2019 and January this year.

Mr James said the defendant was arrested in June as part of Gwent Police’s Operation Solar, which targeted class A drug traffickers in Newport.

Sheen had 48 previous convictions for 100 offences stretching over three decades.

These included 45 for theft or similar offences as well as possession of cocaine and cannabis.

Gareth Williams, mitigating, said: “The defendant has a long record and he has been a drug addict for a long time.”

His barrister said his client was “facilitating” deals in order to get drugs for himself.

Judge Richard Williams told Sheen: “These offences are so serious that only a term of immediate imprisonment can be justified.

“You took part in the supply of class A drugs. You were the link man or the middle man between those wanting drugs and those selling them.”

Sheen was jailed for 26 months and ordered to pay a victim surcharge after his release from prison.