Dealer’s drug stash down his trousers
A MAN in a BMW stopped by police in a town centre car park made an unusual admission to officers.
Liam Foster-richards told them he had a stash of cocaine “under his b***s” but he insisted it was for his own personal use.
However, text messages subsequently found on the defendant’s phone told a different story, including one sent just minutes before the police pulled him over.
Swansea Crown Court heard that on the evening of November 7, 2019, police in Carmarthen were on the lookout for a black BMW which intelligence suggested was involved in drug supply.
Dean Pulling, prosecuting, said that at around 9.35pm the target car was spotted in Spilman Street. The officers signalled for the car to stop but it continued on for a short distance before pulling into the Priory Street car park.
The occupants got out of the car and the passenger, Foster-richards, was seen to be “shaking and looking nervous”.
The court heard police spoke separately to the defendant and to his partner who was at the wheel of the car and they gave conflicting accounts of their movements that evening.
Mr Pulling said Fosterrichards then told officers: “I’ll be honest with you. I’m not going to lie. I’ve got half an ounce of coke under my b***s. It’s for personal use.”
The defendant then reached into his trousers and retrieved a package.
The BMW was searched and a mobile phone was recovered from the floor next to the seat where Foster-richards had been sat.
The court heard the defendant’s house was subsequently searched but nothing of relevance was found.
When his partner’s house was searched officers found what were described as “cannabis trimmings”.
In his interview Fosterrichards gave a prepared statement in which he said the cocaine found by police had been for his own personal use.
The prosecutor said tests showed the package from the defendant’s trousers contained 55g of cocaine at a purity of 75% and that texts related to the supply of cocaine were found on the seized phone covering the period from July 5 up until his arrest.
The court heard a number of texts related to money the defendant was owed by other people to whom he had sold cocaine for onward supply, and the day before he was stopped by police he had sent a message to one contact saying: “Bro, what’s happening? I can’t re-up [buy new stock]. I need my change.”
Mr Pulling said the last message about drugs, in which Foster-richards advertised the fact he was “active”, had been sent just 10 minutes before he was stopped in the Carmarthen car park.
Foster-richards, of Green Park, Cynwyl Elfed, Carmarthen, had previously pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has previous convictions for 18 offences including seven for the possession of cannabis as well as for the production of cannabis.
In September 2019, two months before his arrest in Carmarthen, Fosterrichards was given a suspended sentence for affray at Swansea Crown Court.
This conviction related to an incident in the previous November in a country lane near Nantgaredig when he had threatened a farmer with a chainsaw while his brother brandished a baseball bat.
David Singh, for Fosterrichards, said that since his arrest the defendant had taken steps to tackle his cocaine addiction and had been “drug-free for some considerable period”.
The barrister said his client was now in a very different situation to the one he had been in November 2019 and intended, when he was in a position to do so, to marry his partner.
Judge Paul Thomas QC told the defendant it was clear he had been a “busy Class A drug dealer” who had been running other people below him in the supply chain and been pressuring them for money.
The judge said to Foster-richards: “You may have thought it was worth the risk. You may not think that now.”
In coming to his sentence the judge said he had in mind the delay in the case coming to court, the efforts the defendant had made in tackling his drug problem, the additional difficulty of serving a custodial sentence during the current Covid health crisis, and the fact the offence had been committed while Foster-richards was subject to a suspended sentence.
Giving the defendant credit for his guilty plea, the judge sentenced him to three and a half years in prison.
Foster-richards will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
As the defendant was taken down to the cells somebody in the public gallery shouted out: “Love you, bro”.