A cocaine dealer advertised his illicit trade with a tattoo complete with his drug line phone number, a court has heard. Tattooed Mark Whittingham and friend and neighbour Jordan Tanner were running a significant coke dealing operation from their Afan Valley base.
When officers searched a number of vans owned by the men they recovered more than £31,000 of high-purity cocaine, while in the house of one of the dealers police found a stun-gun disguised as a torch. Police also recovered a laptop computer belonging to Whittingham containing indecent images of children.
Swansea Crown Court heard the dealers were caught on June 1 this year when intelligence led police to carry out a raid on Tanner's Cwmavon house. Ieuan Rees, prosecuting, said both Tanner and Whittingham were present at the property, and a police search uncovered drug-dealing paraphernalia including snap-seal bags and quantities of adulterants including caffeine which are used to mix with cocaine prior to sale. Under the dressing table in a bedroom officers found a working stun-gun disguised as a torch
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A search of three vans owned by the defendants uncovered a total of 305g of high-purity cocaine worth more than £31,000. A total of £1,425 in cash was also seized from the men - £665 from Tanner and £550 from Whittingham. The prosecutor said a number of phones were seized and examined, and they contained extensive messaging between the defendants showing their involvement in "large scale drug dealing". Whittingham was found to have a tattoo advertising cocaine for sale, complete with a phone number customers could ring to place their order.
The court heard that a laptop belonging to Whittingham was also seized by police, and on it officers found a number of videos showing child sexual abuse.
In their subsequent interviews 27-year-old Whittingham answered no comment to all questions asked while 28-year-old Tanner made admissions about his involvement in dealing. Tanner also said he had bought the stun gun from a friend for £20 but had never used it. Read about a pensioner who armed himself with an imitation gun and went to challenge a neighbour and his visitors over what he thought were breaches of Covid restrictions.
Jordan Tanner, of Brynglas Avenue, Cwmavon, Port Talbot, had previously pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply, possession of criminal property - money - and possession of a weapon designed or adapted to discharge electricity when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. Mark Tyrone Whittingham, also from Brynglas Avenue in Cwmavon, had previous pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply and to possession of criminal property as well as to three counts of making - that is, downloading - indecent images of children of categories A, B and C when he appeared in the dock alongside his co-accused. Neither defendant has any previous convictions.
Dan Griffiths, for Tanner, said it was accepted a custodial sentence was inevitable, and the mitigation he could put forward on his client's behalf would go only to length. He said Tanner and his partner had found themselves in debt which led to the defendant suffering with depression and seeing his weight balloon to 30 stone - he said an "overwhelmed and desperate" Tanner had then turned to supplying drugs. The advocate said the stun-gun had been a novelty purchase, and had nothing to do with the drug dealing.
Lee Davies, for Whittingham, said the defendant had always worked since leaving school but that as his use of cocaine had increased he had turned to supplying the drug to fund his own habit. The advocate said the possession of the indecent images was linked to his cocaine use in that he engaged on social media with "groups that he should not have been engaging with" and matters had developed from there.
With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas judge Catherine Richards sentenced Tanner to a total of three years and four months in prison comprising three years and four months for the drugs matters, one month for possession of the money, and one month for possession of the stun-gun all to run concurrently. With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas Whittingham was sentenced to a total of three years and 10 months in prison comprising three years and four months for the drugs matters and one month for possession of criminal property to run concurrently, and six months for the possession of the indecent images to run consecutively. Both defendants will serve up to half those periods in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
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