A drug dealer was hiding his stash of cocaine in plain sight in a McDonald's bag on the front seat of his car, a court has heard.
Jonathon Bartley was found with more than £13,500 of high-purity coke when his car was pulled over by police. When the 38-year-old didn't return home that evening Bartley's partner, Kayleigh Owen-Jones, guessed he had been arrested and decided to get rid of his stock of cocaine in their house - but was caught red-handed by police.
Tom Scapens, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that at just before 3pm on December 7, 2020, police stopped a BMW car on the A48 at Cross Hands in Carmarthenshire. The driver of the car was Bartley, and beside him on the front passenger seat of the vehicle was a McDonald's takeaway bag inside which was sealed flask. The court heard that in the flask were two bags containing white powder which turned out to be a total of 123g of 80 per cent purity cocaine. The street value of the coke if sold in 1g deals was put more than £13,500. When Bartley was searched officers found a piece of paper containing a "tick list" of deals done showing he was owed some £2,520 by 12 customers. The prosecutor said subsequent tests of the sticky tape used to seal the flask in the bag yielded a palm print which matched the defendant's.
