Soldier turned dealer ordered to surrender Armani watch
AN ex-soldier who was running a cocaine-dealing operation in Swansea now has no cash or assets left apart from his Armani watch, a court has heard.
When police raided the house where Jake Dear was staying with a former comrade in October last year they found a stash of highpurity cocaine worth £31,000 along with a 9mm bullet and a designer watch.
Dear was subsequently sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for his drug-dealing activities and when the case came back to court for a proceeds of crime hearing the court heard investigators had been unable to find any assets owned by the defendant save for his timepiece which is valued at £500.
Swansea Crown Court heard the watch is now going to be sold and a judge ordered the proceeds of the sale be confiscated.
Dear was arrested on October 4 last year when officers swoop on a house in Wern Terrace in the Port Tennant area of Swansea. Present at the property were two former Royal Logistics Corp soldiers, one of whom was the 28-year-old defendant.
A search of the house uncovered 306g of 77% pure cocaine – worth close to £31,000 – as well as cash, a 9mm bullet, and an Armani watch.
One of the bedrooms of the house had been given over to the production of cannabis with 18 plants in a growing tent linked to a water butt and watering system.
In texts subsequently found on Dear’s phone the ex-soldier boasted that he was “supplying the city with all the best things”.
Officers had identified the address as a property of interest after they raided a house in Heol Gwyrosydd in the Penlan area of Swansea the previous day.
At the Penlan house police arrested two cocaine dealers who it emerged were being supplied by Dear and recovered an electronic bank card reader, £3,580 cash, and paraphernalia associated with the preparation and supply of Class A drugs including quantities of cutting agent used to bulk out deals.
In a bedroom police also found a woman called Siobhan Clayton, who had previously been reported as missing, hiding under a bed.
Dear was sentenced to four-anda-half years in prison after pleading guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply, the simple possession of cocaine, being concerned in the supply of cannabis, and possession of ammunition without a firearm certificate.
At the Proceeds of Crime Act hearing the court heard Dear had benefited from his criminality to the tune of £27,720 but he only has £500 in available assets in the form of the £500 Armani watch previously seized by police.
Judge Huw Rees made a confiscation order in the sum of £500 payable in 56 days when the watch is sold. Dear faces an extra seven days in custody if he does not pay.