A visiting drug dealer was operating from a busy Swansea city centre hotel and paying for the room with cash on a day-to-day basis. Swansea Crown Court heard the technique is popular with so-called "county lines" gangs based in cities such as London and Liverpool, as it allows dealers and couriers to be flexible in coming and going from the target towns where they are working.
Sending the dealer Bradley Dhlamin to prison, the judge told him that those who come to Swansea to sell drugs must expect a long stay in the city when they are caught. Hannah George, prosecuting, said on January 13, 2020, police went to the Premier Inn on Swansea's Little Wind Street in connection with an on-going investigation into a man who had been arrested earlier that day and who had been staying at the hotel since January 8, extending his stay one day at a time and paying cash for each day.
While police were talking to staff in reception, Dhlamini walked in. Seeing the officers, the 23-year-old quickly turned around walked out again. Staff told police that the person who had just done the abrupt U-turn was staying in the same room as the man they were inquiring about so officers went after the fleeing man and detained him.
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The prosecutor said police recovered a phone from Dhlamini's trouser pocket, and a cigarette packet from his jacket pocket - in the packet were 37 wraps of 87 per cent pure crack cocaine, and three wraps of lesser-purity heroin. Also on the defendant was a key card to another city centre hotel - the Dolphin - and subsequent checks showed he had checked into that hotel at lunchtime the day before, booking a room for one day and paying with cash.
The court heard booking hotel rooms one day at a time and paying with cash is a common technique used by county lines drugs gangs as it allows dealers and couriers to come and go, and to travel back to the city where they are based in order to pick up new supplies. Go here to read about the Liverpudlian drug dealers operating the "Scouse Kev line" caught red-handed in Swansea with more than 800 heroin and crack cocaine deals.
The defendant gave a "no comment" interview to police, and refused to reveal the PIN to his phone. The court heard that officers have been unable to get access to the messages on the mobile but have accessed a notes file which appeared to be a dealer's list of amounts of money owed and references to B - shorthand for "brown" or heroin - and W or "white" as cocaine is often called.
Dhlamini's house in Greater Manchester was subsequently searched and though no drugs were found officers did recover 14 phone SIM cards. Dhlamini, of Parsonage Street, Bury, Greater Manchester, had previously pleaded guilty to possession of crack cocaine with intent to supply and to possession of heroin with intent to supply when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.
Ian Ibrahim, for Dhlamini, said the defendant's parents had left him behind in Zimbabwe at the age of two when they had come to the UK. He said his client joined them in the UK at the age of 10 but suffered mental and physical abuse including daily beatings at their hands which eventually saw him being taken into care at the age of 14. The barrister said that, lonely and isolated as a teenager, Dhlamini had been introduced to cocaine and cannabis by his peers and had ended up in debt.
Judge Paul Thomas QC told Dhlamini that two years ago he had come to Swansea for "one purpose, and one purpose only", and that was to deal sell Class A drugs. He said the defendant had known the risks he was running when he made to choice come to the city, and now had to pay the price. He added: "People like you need to know that if you come here to sell Class A drugs, you can expect a very long stay."
With a one-quarter discount for his guilty pleas, the judge sentenced Dhlamini to 30 months in prison. The defendant will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
The court heard the person whose arrest led to Dhlamini's arrest disappeared after being released under investigation, and his whereabouts are unknown.
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