A DRUGS dealer has been taken off the streets of East London after being convicted of a street shooting over a �150 debt.Desmond Meade was found guilty at the Old Bailey of attempted murder when he blasted his 44-year-old victim with a shotgun while children played close by

A DRUGS dealer has been taken off the streets of East London after being convicted of a street shooting over a �150 debt.

Desmond Meade was found guilty at the Old Bailey yesterday (Thursday) of attempted murder when he blasted his 44-year-old victim in the chest with a shotgun while children were playing close by.

He was also convicted of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Police were called on August 4 last year to Cropley Street in Hoxton where they found an injured couple close to a Vauxhall car that had crashed into a wall.

The driver had a gunshot wound in the chest and was taken by ambulance to hospital, but made a full recovery. The 39-year-old woman with him was treated for minor injuries.

The shooting followed a dispute over a drugs debt when Meade approached the man and fired a shotgun, then ran from the scene as his victim lay wounded.

“The streets will be safer without the criminal activities of Desmond Meade,” said Det Sgt Chris Jones from Operation Trident, which investigates shootings in London’s black community.”

“He was a well-placed drug dealer who demonstrated total disregard for his victim’s life and safety of other members of the public, including children who were playing nearby.

“His crime was motivated by an insignificant drugs debt of �150 owed by his victim.

Mead, a 25-year-old from Crondall Court on the St John’s Estate in Hoxton, is being sentenced on February 26.

A second man, 26-year-old Russell Stanley from East Ham, was acquitted of attempted murder.