A lottery ticket helped to catch a cocaine dealer who claimed the tens of thousands of pounds he was making was down to selling Turkish cigarettes, a court has heard. Lee Gallagher claimed he'd been travelling to Turkey and bringing back quantities of tobacco which he was selling before transferring the profits to someone in Birmingham - but phone evidence revealed the true source of the cash. Swansea Crown Court heard that an investigation into Gallagher led police to one of his associates who was running a "mobile shop" offering cannabis, ketamine and LSD as well as coke to customers.
The two dealers, and the man from the West Midlands who was receiving the drug money, have all been jailed. Sending them down, the judge described dealing Class A drugs as a "wicked" trade that blights communities. The case is the latest example of drug dealing in the seaside town of Aberystwyth.
Last month a dozen members of an organised crime group which flooded Aberystwyth with hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of cocaine were jailed. The gang's operation involved car washes and barbers shops being used as "front" businesses, trusted operatives being "embedded" in the town, and asylum seekers being trafficked into mid Wales to act as couriers and dealers. Matt Murphy, prosecuting, told the court that in March 2021 police arrested Gallagher at his home in Aberystwyth following an investigation into large amounts of money which had been going into and out of his bank account.
Officers sei.
