Leader of cocaine gang must pay back £20,000
THE “ringleader” of a gang who were “flooding the Rhondda Valleys with cocaine” has been ordered to pay back almost £20,000.
Anthony Harris, 23, who was last year sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for his role in the group, appeared at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.
The court was previously told how the drugs gang were caught with around £445,000 worth of cocaine during two police raids.
Harris, of Bryngolau, Tonyrefail, Rhondda Cynon Taf, was one of 10 defendants sentenced on July 16, after each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to supply class A drugs. The convictions came about as a result of Operation Orange Gobi set up by South Wales Police to investigate controlled drug related activities in Tonyrefail.
Yesterday Judge Eleri Rees told Harris: “The position is agreed and so you shall pay the available amount, namely £19,655.51 of a £86,316.51 total benefit. The time in which you have to pay it back is three months.”
The court heard the funds will partly come from his BMW X5, which bears his nickname ‘Twan,’ and is to be sold by police.
Harris is currently serving his sentence in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, a class A drug.
In July, prosecutor Caroline Rees told Cardiff Crown Court that defendants Harris and Jonathon Button, 26, were the “ringleaders” of the gang.
Another of the 10 defendants Rhys Bailey, 34, of Heol Islwyn, Tonyrefail, who was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment suspended for 24 months, also appeared at court yesterday. His Proceeds of Crime Act hearing was adjourned to be heard on May 26.