A dealer who went on the run after being arrested was caught out by police when they asked for his hand.
A Liverpool crime gang took over the home of a vulnerable couple and used it as a base for peddling the Class A drugs, sending two young men to the property to deal on their behalf. James Spindler, from Warrington, and Sam Oliver were arrested at the home and subsequently charged but Spindler then skipped bail and went on the run until he was found in Aberdeen using a false name.
Swansea Crown Court heard Spindler and Oliver were part of a "classic county lines operation". Alycia Carpanini, prosecuting, said on January 14 this year police officers from Swansea's organised crime team were conducting patrols when they saw suspicious activity involving a number of men and a car near a primary school, WalesOnline reports.
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Officers followed one of the men as he walked to a property and the police - who were already in possession of a search warrant for the address - decided to raid the home immediately. The court heard 22-year-old Spindler was in the living room of the home, and when searched was found with mobile phones a quantity of cash.
In the room was small black bag containing 19g of heroin and 47g of cocaine. Oliver, 21, was also in the house and he tried to escape via the rear door but was detained.
An examination of seized phones showed messages between the pair and others relating to the supply of Class A drugs in Swansea since December 27 the previous year. The prosecutor said police found the occupants of the house in a bedroom of the property, and they told the officers that Spindler and Oliver had been living in their house for around a week and refused to leave.
Spindler and Oliver were subsequently interviewed and answered "no comment" to most questions asked. The pair were charged and appeared at Swansea Magistrates Court the following day - they were released on bail but Spindler then went on the run, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
The defendant was arrested on May 24 in Aberdeen following a "disturbance" and he initially gave Scottish officers a fake name. But when his finger prints were check his true identity was revealed, and the existence of the Welsh arrest warrant was flagged up.
Meanwhile his co-defendant Oliver, from Glangariff Street in Liverpool, had already been sentenced to three years and four months in prison for his part in the operation. James Spindler, of Greenings Court, Warrington, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine, being concerned in the supply of heroin, and a breach of bail when he appeared in the dock.
Dan Griffiths, for Spindler, said after the defendant's relationship with his father had broken down he had found himself homeless and sofa surfing with friends, and in those circumstances it was almost inevitable that he would fall into "bad company" and become "ripe for exploitation" by more criminally sophisticated people. He said his client was sent to Swansea to supply drugs on the streets as part of a "classic county lines operation involving an element of cuckooing", and he said the reality was that to those further up the supply chain Spindler was "an entirely expendable asset".
Recorder Duncan Bould said Spindler and Oliver had come to Swansea from their homes in the north west of England at the best of others to supply drugs in significant quantities, and he said given the pair's lack of previous convictions for such offending it was "astonishing the two of you seem to have taken to it so readily". With a 10% discount for his guilty pleas Spindler was sentenced to 54 months in prison for the drugs matters, and with a one-third discount for his plea to the breach of bail he was sentenced to four months making an overall sentence of 58 months in prison.
Spindler will serve up to half that sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
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