Carlisle drug dealer 'used boy as foot soldier'

Image caption, The teen was arrested after leaving Peter Kenney's home in Eldon Drive

A drug dealer used a teenage "foot soldier" to move drugs and money in a "county lines" operation.

Peter Raymond Kenney, 48, had denied conspiracy to supply illicit substances but was found guilty by a jury at Carlisle Crown Court.

Police linked Kenney, from Carlisle, to the operation by analysis of a mobile phone seized from a 16-year-old.

The teenager was found with 拢1,400 cash and admitted transporting drugs from London to Cumbria.

Jurors heard the boy from London was arrested after leaving Kenney's Eldon Drive home in May.

Phone evidence showed he had travelled to Carlisle from the south of England six days earlier, and he admitted being involved in an operation to supply heroin and crack cocaine.

Prosecutor Brendan Burke said it was a "county lines" drugs supply plot which was "controlled by London gangsters" and targeted north Cumbrian addicts.

Kenney, who had 178 offences on his record including two for Class A drugs trafficking, was warned he faces a "significant custodial sentence" by judge Peter Davies.

Kenney and the youth will be sentenced on 12 November.