TWO Swansea men have been sent to prison for their roles in a conspiracy to supply cocaine worth £300,000.

Marcel Dean Edwards, of Sketty Park, was yesterday jailed for seven-and-a-half years, and Christopher David Jones, of Llansamlet, for four-and-a-half years.

An accomplice from South East Wales, Daniel Brett, was given a three- year prison term.

The three were arrested last year after detectives from South Wales Police's Organised Crime Unit spent months monitoring their activities during a major surveillance operation.

The men had been due to go on trial last week at Swansea Crown Court.

But when a jury was about to be sworn in, guilty pleas to a conspiracy to supply the Class A drug cocaine were entered by Edwards, 44, of Beaconsfield Way; Jones, 23, of Lon Brynawel; and Brett, 35, of Newport. Jones and Brett also pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply the Class B drug amphetamine.

Judge Huw Davies QC said Edwards would have received a sentence of ten years if he had contested the case and been found guilty by a jury.

The sentences imposed on Jones and Brett had been similarly reduced by a quarter to reflect the guilty pleas entered by them, said the judge.

Tom Crowther, prosecuting, said the conspiracies — between September 2009 and April last year — involved the bringing into Swansea of high-purity cocaine and amphetamine for "dilution, packaging and onward sale".

Cocaine dealer Edwards was involved in obtaining the drug, "cutting" it and distributing large quantities at street-level purity.

He also hired premises and vehicles that were used by Jones and Brett.

Mr Crowther said that during the conspiracies a room at the Singleton Hotel, Dillwyn Street, was used as a "processing centre" where drugs were diluted, pressed and packaged.

The room had been made available by Jones, whose mother ran the pub. Jones, who helped dilute cocaine and amphetamine, was also involved as a courier, delivering drugs and collecting money.

Brett was also a courier, the court heard. He was arrested after police who stopped his car on the M4 found it contained a kilo of cocaine and almost 50 kilos of amphetamine.

Mr Crowther told the court that intensive surveillance began at the start of last year.

At the time, Edwards was paying £800 a month to rent a "safe house" at Excelsior Apartments that was used for storing cash and drugs. During a visit to the city in January, Brett stayed at the Premier Inn. But when he was away from his room, officers entered it and photographed a bag of money estimated to contain between £50,000 and £100,000.

During the surveillance operation, detectives recorded the gang as they moved bags between various locations in the city.

Edwards was arrested on April 7, the court heard, when officers approached him as he arrived at his city home.

Lists

While trying to escape, he threw away two bags containing cocaine worth £15,000 and almost a kilo of a dental anaesthetic used to dilute the drug.

Found in his house were lists referring to cocaine dealing that had yielded tens of thousands of pounds.

Mr Crowther said that Edwards had been involved in supplying a kilo of cocaine of street-level purity — but the prosecution case was that during the conspiracy he would have gone on to supply a further four, with the five kilos having a total street value of up to £300,000.

Peter Rouch QC, for Edwards, conceded in mitigation that an aggravating factor was that the 44- year-old had received an eight-year jail sentence in 2003 after conspiring to supply cocaine.

Message

Temporary Detective Inspector Mike Davies, of the Organised Crime Unit at South Wales Police, said: "The sentences handed down by the court today are a clear message to those individuals who deal Class A drugs. The crucial factor in the success of this operation was that the information was supplied by the community to local officers, and has prevented tens of thousands of drug deals getting onto the streets of Swansea and wider surrounding areas."

Chief Superintendent Mark Matthias, Divisional Commander for the Western Division of the South Wales Police, said: "What this operation clearly demonstrates is that no one is above the law and anyone involved in serious organised crime will be targeted.

Swansea Council leader Chris Holley said: "The people of Swansea will be reassured those operations of this kind, which take a great deal of time and resource, are made public and that the sentences handed out to drugs suppliers fit the hide- ous crime."