Police tailed ‘users’ and caught crack cocaine dealer
A DRUG dealer was caught after two would-be customers were tailed through Cardiff by plain-clothes police officers.
When Liam James Enright was stopped, his mobile phone was found to have a message referring to a collection of “whisky” – said in court to be a slang term used for crack cocaine in the city.
A judge warned 22-year-old Enright not to fall down a “slippery slope” of drug dealing before sending him to prison for 30 months. He was found with five wraps of the drug, worth about £100, after plain-clothes police officers tracked suspected drug users through Cardiff in October.
Cardiff Crown Court heard on Thursday that Enright had a string of previous offences.
Judge Eleri Rees said: “It’s a slippery slope that others have travelled down.”
The court heard that the officers from the organised crime unit followed two people “with the appearance of drug users” through the city, who later met Enright near the Hilton Hotel.
When later stopped, Enright was found with the Class A drug wrapped in Clingfilm packages.
A mobile phone in possession of another person stopped, but which was later found to belong to Enright, contained a message that referred to collection of “whisky”, which prosecution Nuhu Gobir told the court is a term used to refer to crack cocaine in Cardiff.
Mr Gobir said Enright, who lives at the Salvation Army, Cardiff, pleaded guilty to the charges of possession with the intent to supply at the first opportunity. Jonathan Lewis, defending, told the court that after Enright was released from prison previously he was “effectively homeless”.
Judge Rees also ordered Enright to pay a victim surcharge. He will be released from prison halfway through his sentence on licence.