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Search forJail term for four after city drug plot
Friday, November 21, 2008, 17:55
Robert Meredith was jailed at Swansea Crown Court after detectives seized a 30-kilo consignment of the drug.
Meredith was one of four men sent down yesterday following a police surveillance operation in the city last spring.
The 53-year-old grandfather, of Mynydd Newydd Road, Penplas, Swansea, showed no emotion as he was sentenced by Judge Christopher Morton.
But a female relative in the public gallery stormed out of the courtroom, screaming: "That's ridiculous!"
Also sentenced, yesterday were Swansea couple Mark Price, aged 40, and Tina Davies, aged 49, both of Rhos Road, Gendros; and two Cynon Valley men, David Davies, aged 54, and Stephen Agg, aged 53, both of Mountain Ash.
Price was jailed for three years and four months; David Davies for two years; and Agg for 18 months.
Tina Davies was made the subject of an 18-month community order.
Price, David Davies and Agg all pleaded guilty to being involved in supplying cannabis resin.
Meredith and Tina Davies denied the joint charge, but were convicted by a jury three weeks ago.
Tina Davies was also found guilty of possessing £2,400 in criminal proceeds — a joint charge admitted by Price.
Jim Davis, prosecuting, said the five defendants were arrested after a large consignment of cannabis resin arrived in Swansea last March.
Officers were keeping watch when 120 nine-ounce bars of the Class C drug were delivered in two cardboard boxes to the house in Rhos Road where Tina Davies lived with Price.
The cannabis resin was in a Ford Mondeo that arrived in the city on March 27 from Aberdare.
Shortly before 7pm, said Mr Davis, the Mondeo travelled along Mynydd Newydd Road towards its junction with Pentregethin Road. It then stopped at the traffic lights directly behind a BMW car being driven by Meredith.
The two vehicles then travelled along Upper King's Head Road and Moorview Road before stopping in Rhos Road.
Two boxes were then removed from the Mondeo's boot, and Price carried them from the pavement into the house.
The Mondeo and BMW then drove away and Meredith was arrested later in the driveway of his home. Meanwhile, other officers entered the house in Rhos Road and arrested Price and Tina Davies. Found under a mattress in a bedroom was £2,400.
The Mondeo's driver and passenger — David Davies and Agg — were arrested later that evening. Mr Davis told the court the 30 kilos of cannabis resin would have been worth £88,000 to £117,000 if divided into street deals.
The prosecution case was that the two Mountain Ash men had been couriers, while the role of Price and Tina Davies had been to provide a "safe house" for storing the drug before it could be moved elsewhere after being divided into smaller quantities. Meredith, said the Crown, was the organiser of the plot.
Sentencing, Judge Morton said a "substantially aggravating feature" of Meredith's case was that he had been jailed for three-and-a-half years in 2001 for an offence involving cannabis resin worth some £400,000.
That prison term followed Meredith's arrest at Morriston Cemetery, Swansea, in 1999 when a police surveillance operation led to the seizure of 80 kilos of the drug when it was being transferred from one car to another.
Judge Morton said Meredith had been the "organiser and supervisor" of the drug offence that had been committed in the city eight months ago.
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