Brothers sentenced over dealing drugs
A crown court judge says there is enormous public concern about the misery caused to young people by drugs. Judge Niclas Parry was speaking as he sentenced a Newtown man to two years imprisonment for drug dealing.
Nicholas Price, 22, admitted conspiring with his brother to supply cannabis, a class B drug.
But he also admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine, a class A drug.
His brother Leon Price, 24, who admitted the cannabis conspiracy only, was told that his position was different and he received an eight-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months.
Leon Price was ordered to carry out 250 hours unpaid work and follow nine sessions of a substance misuse programme.
Now a financial hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act will take place to see if any ill-gotten gains can be confiscated.
The brothers, of Trem y Cwrt, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.
"You both admitted profiting from the supply of drugs in a part of Wales where the misery to young people and criminal activity caused by drugs is of enormous public concern," Judge Parry, sitting at Mold Crown Court, told them.
If there was to be any prospect of reducing that harm to young people in particular then the supply of drugs, even at a low level, had to be cut out.
Nicholas Price was involved in class A drugs and his position was far more serious. Both were street dealers of cannabis, the court heard.
Prosecutor Emmalyne Downing told how police in May of last year executed a search warrant at their home address, where a total of 130 grammes of cannabis, with a street value of more than £1,000, was found
Police found cash, scales and mobile phones belonging to the defendants.
The phones were analysed and messages indicative of drug dealing were found. But there were also messages on Nicholas Price's phone which showed cocaine was being supplied.
In his basis of plea, he said that he was not involved in open street dealing of cannabis to people who were not known to him.
He used amphetamine and cannabis and occasionally cocaine and supplied cannabis to friends. He had also supplied cocaine. Defending barrister Jonathan Austin said his client accepted that there was an element of profit to assist him to afford his own expensive habit.
Andrew Green, for Leon Price, said that his client dealt cannabis only to friends which was used to fund his own cannabis habit.
