Drug dealers found with more than £8,000 of heroin and cocaine were caught after a customer was found with drugs by police. Raids on their homes resulted in 160g of Class A drugs being seized.
Leonard Newman, 39, and Denzel Chakara, 21, were jailed for their part in a drugs operation which was discovered following the arrest of a customer on April 27. An officer on patrol in Llanharan, near Pontyclun, saw a drug deal taking place between two men, one being Newman, in Picton Terrace.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday heard the officer followed the customer, who upon being approached threw three wraps. These were retrieved and tested and found to be heroin and cocaine on which Newman's DNA was later found.
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Prosecutor Josh Scouller said officers attended Newman's house in Picton Terrace and arrested the defendant. An Adidas bag which Newman was sitting on was found to contain £1,011 in cash and 15 wraps of a brown substance, a large blue wrap, a number of white wraps, and digital scales. A number of phones were located on the coffee table near to where the defendant had sat and a black burner phone was found to have been called by Chakara’s number that day.
The total weight of heroin was 27.94g worth between £1,040 and £1,410. The total weight of cocaine was 4.67g with purity in excess of 80% and worth between £440 and £640.
Analysis was made of the number linked to Chakara and police attended on the same date at his address in Pethybridge Road in Ely, Cardiff. His mother answered the door and he was arrested. A black burner phone was located in the address and contained messages which suggested he and Newman were working together. A search of his bedroom resulted in a black rucksack containing 53 brown wraps and 35 white wraps and a kitchen knife.
The total weight of the heroin was 114.71g in excess of 80% purity worth between £3,810 and £5,080. The total weight of the cocaine was 18.9g. It was in excess of 80% purity and worth between £1,350 and £1,450.
The defendants later pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to supply controlled drugs of Class A. The court heard Newman had 27 convictions in including drug offences while Chakara had two previous convictions and was in breach of a suspended sentence order after being sentenced to 46 weeks imprisonment suspended for 12 months for possession of an offensive weapon.
In mitigation the court was told Newman had four children and his imprisonment will have an impact on his family but since his time on remand in custody he became free of drugs and feels better for it. Chakara found himself head of his household in his early teens and had to provide for his family which led the defendant to drug dealing with the "ambition of making himself rich".
Sentencing, Judge Shoman Khan said: "Drug dealing is harmful. It harms the drug user, it harms their families, the community as a whole, and makes policing extremely difficult." Newman was sentenced to a total of four years imprisonment and Chakara was sentenced to a total of three years and eight months imprisonment.
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