A Bolton drug dealer caught with a sawn-off shotgun has been jailed for seven years.

Ali Khalid Ali was already subject to a suspended prison sentence when he was found to have the weapon as well as a stash of crack cocaine and heroin.

Bolton Crown Court heard how he was arrested following a disturbance in the town in February last year when officers were told that Ali had a weapon.

Police raided his grandmother’s property in Gainsway Court, Halliwell on February 15 last year found a sawn-off shotgun in a bag. It was described as a Feg Monte Carlo, less than 60 centimetres in length and capable of being fired.

Jacob Dyer, prosecuting, told the court:“His fingerprints had been found on a shotgun cartridge found in June 2019.”

And neighbours claimed the gun found at Gainsway Court had been fired during an incident in November 2020.

Police also found heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis belonging to Ali at the address and at another property belonging to his mother as well as drug dealing paraphernalia including scales The total value of the drugs was £6,500, with some of the heroin having a purity of 57 per cent.

Mr Dyer added: “It is a reasonable inference his possession of a firearm was related to the supply of drugs.”

Ali, aged 21, admitted possessing a prohibited weapon, possessing cocaine and heroin with the intent to supply and possessing cannabis.

The court heard that Ali, of Boundary Gardens, Bolton, had previously been given a suspended prison sentence for possessing a machete in December 2019.

Andrea Locke, defending, said Ali had encountered trauma in his life, seeking asylum before coming to the UK “He was found to be suffering from complex PTSD as he witnessed his father being murdered,” she said.

She added that he has also been the victim of an acid attack which caused him to lose sight on one eye.

And she stressed that, when his phones were examined they did not show him being involved in drug dealing.

Sentencing Ali, the Honorary Recorder of Bolton, Judge Martin Walsh told him he had made choices to get involved in criminality.

He said: “You arrived in the UK as an asylum seeker, no doubt you had been traumatised by your earlier life experience.

“It was your choice to associate with others in drug related offences, your choice to involve yourself in the offences for which you fall to be sentenced.”