COKE FIND MUM TURNED DEALER
£240k of drugs stashed
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A MUM stashed cocaine worth £240,000 round her home – behind the back of her 11-year-old daughter.
Claire Tague, 32, hid drugs inside Kinder Eggs, an Asda shopping bag and behind books on shelves.
She ran a warehouse for dealers who would call round to collect cocaine.
When police swooped on their threebed home in Clayton, Manchester, they found 1.2kg of cocaine hidden all over the property.
Tague asked detectives if she could speak to her partner to break the news to him as he knew nothing about it.
She was jailed for six years at Manchester Crown Court after admitting possessing cocaine with intent to supply. Her lawyer Rachel White said Tague did not use or sell the drugs herself.
Ms White said Tague had struggled to cope with the death of her dad and “sought escape in gambling” racking up “significant debts”.
Though she refused to sell drugs she agreed to hide them.
The court heard Tague revealed all her stash sites to police as they went round her home.
They found 80 snap bags of cocaine hidden under the kitchen bin and an Asda bag packed with the drug in a wardrobe. Officers also cracked open 10 cocaine-stuffed Kinder Eggs.
They also recovered four mobile phones and notes with suspicious figures hidden among her shopping lists.
Ms White added: “There is no evidence of a lavish lifestyle and she didn’t drag her partner into the proceedings.”
He was not prosecuted nor did police offer evidence against him. Jailing her Judge Martin Walsh said: “Anybody who deals in Class-A drugs on a commercial scale must expect to receive significant custodial sentences.”