A CONVICTED drug dealer has been jailed for six years after pleading guilty to selling Class A and B drugs at last year's Manchester Pride event.

The arrest was made in dramatic fashion when a plain clothes police officer gave chase to the drug dealer along the canal in the city centre before tackling him to the ground.

Shaun Watson, 41, of Shrewsbury Street, Old Trafford, was handed a six year sentence on Wednesday, May 9, after pleading guilty to the supply of Class A and B drugs.

Detective Constable Adam Cronshaw, from GMP’s Serious & Organised Crime Group, said: “Shaun Watson is a prolific drug dealer who hasn’t learnt his lesson from previous prison sentences.

“Far too often we hear about young people who tragically die from inadvertent overdoses taking a combination of the recreational drugs Watson was peddling.

“Now he is behind bars there is one less dealer poisoning our communities with potentially lethal cocktails of drugs.”

Watson was also handed a further five months imprisonment for breaching a suspended sentence for possession of a stun gun.

The arrest was made in the early hours of Monday, August 28 2017, when plain clothes police officers were operating at the Manchester’s Pride event in the city centre.

A security worker suspected Watson of dealing drugs outside a bar on Richmond Street and raised the alarm to police.

Detective Constable Adam Cronshaw immediately recognised him after previously arresting him for drug dealing in Deansgate in 2008, which he was later jailed for.

DC Cronshaw approached him but Watson immediately ran away along Richmond Street.

Officer Cronshaw, along with a colleague, gave chase through Sackville Street and Canal Street where they saw Watson try and dump a bag of drugs into the canal.

The officers caught him and he was detained at the scene.

A short time later a large bag of cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine was discovered nearby worth an estimated £4,500.

The officers claimed that these were the drugs which Watson had tried to dispose of earlier.

Over £5000 of jewellery, which was worn by Watson at the time of the arrest, was also seized from him along with a mobile phone. The phone uncovered hundreds of requests for drugs from suspected customers.

Watson was taken to the police station for interviewing but he denied the drugs were his.

A Proceeds of Crime Hearing will be held later this year to confiscate any property and assets which could have been purchased through ill-gotten gains.