POLICE have welcomed prison sentences handed down to three "significant" drug dealers in Swansea.

Officers say Jamie Draper, David Gallagher and Colin Latham brought misery to communities with their trade in heroin — and police are vowing to continue to put traffickers out of business.

Draper was jailed at Swansea Crown Court along with two drug dealers who had travelled to the city from Liverpool.

All three had been acting on behalf of a Liverpool drug dealer identified in court simply as Baz, a judge was told.

Draper, 34, formerly of Penygraig Road, Townhill, was sentenced to two years and four months after pleading guilty to possessing heroin with the intention of supplying it.

Her co-defendants, 21-year-old David Gallagher and Colin Latham, 25, both of Liverpool, were jailed respectively for three years and three years and eight months after admitting being involved in supplying heroin.

John Lloyd, prosecuting, said all three were arrested in Swansea on September 24 last year. Police approached Draper after seeing her acting suspiciously in Penygraig Road and she was found in possession of nine wraps of heroin with a potential street value of up to £2,390.

She pleaded guilty on the basis that she was acting as a courier or "temporary custodian" who would have received payment of £20 cash and £30 worth of heroin.

Latham, who was arrested nearby, was found in possession of heroin with a potential street value of up to £2,500.

Gallagher was arrested a short time earlier in Colbourne Terrace, Waun Wen, in possession £1,140 in cash and heroin worth up to £2,810, said Mr Lloyd.

Draper, Gallagher and Latham all claimed to have been trying to pay off debts to the same Liverpool drug dealer, a man called Baz. Judge Keith Thomas said drug dealing was a "scourge" that needed to be fought by the courts and immediate jail terms were unavoidable.

Detective Inspector Jason Davies, head of the organised crime team in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, said: "These three individuals were significant dealers in Class A drugs whose illicit trade brought misery to communities by the supplying of heroin.

"This result once again highlights our ongoing work to target dealers, and is one which spells out a very clear message — we will not tolerate people who deal in drugs in our communities, and we will continue to act to put drug dealers out of business."

postnews@swwmedia.co.uk