Talha Chaudry was sentenced to 28 months behind bars
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A teenager caught peddling cocaine for a Manchester drugs gang went on the run for almost a year before being jailed.
Talha Chaudry was arrested after police saw him acting suspiciously outside a café in Swansea, South Wales. Chaudry, who was 18 at the time, had been sent to the city to sell cocaine and was staying in a hotel room, which he paid for each day in cash.
James Hartson, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that at lunchtime on January 13, 2020, police officers on Swansea's High Street saw a male trying to hide from them in the doorway of a café. When the officers approached the man he smelled strongly of cannabis, Wales Online reports.
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The defendant ran off, and as he did so was seen to throw a package to the floor. The package was recovered before officers caught up with Chaudry.
The court heard that when the package was examined it was found to contain seven wraps of high-purity cocaine. Chaudry was searched and was found to be carrying £300 in cash, three mobile phones, and a key card for a room at the Premier Inn hotel on the city's Wind Street.
A search of the defendant's room uncovered further wraps of cocaine and another £151 in cash. One of the teenager's phones showed the defendant had been in direct contact with a number linked to a known county lines drug dealing operation.
Mr Hartson said enquiries showed Chaudry had been staying at the Premier Inn for the past few days, paying for the room each day with cash. He said paying cash for hotel rooms on a daily basis was a tactic commonly used by so-called county lines drug gangs as it allowed dealers and couriers to easily return to their home city to restock.
The prosecutor said "it must be noted with regret" that it had taken 17 months to charge Chaudry following his arrest, but he said the defendant had then failed to attend court and an arrest warrant was issued. He said Chaudry was unlawfully at large for almost a year before being arrested.
Talha Chaudry, now aged 20, of Park Road, Prestwich, had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of cocaine with intent to supply and to a bail offence when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has 19 previous convictions for 33 offences including possession of cannabis with intent to supply.
Ian Metcalfe, for Chaudry, said the defendant was aged 18 years and two months at the time of the offence. He said his client's "highly disrupted and unstable adolescence" had left him "particularly vulnerable to being groomed" by older and more criminally sophisticated members of an organised crime group, and he said Chaudry had been "dispatched to Swansea to sell drugs by others who were able to remain in the shadows and reap the rewards".
The barrister said the 17 month delay in charging Chaudry was "particular mystifying" as he had been arrested with drugs on him and police had "pretty much" all the evidence they needed on that day, though he accepted that once charged the defendant then taken the "entirely wrong decision" not to attend court and to return to Manchester where he slept rough and sofa-surfed with associates until his arrest following a road traffic collision.
Judge Paul Thomas KC said cities and town such as Swansea were "plagued" by county lines gang drug dealers operating out of large cities such as London, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. He told Chaudry that he had been just 18 when he had come to Swansea for the sole purpose of supplying drugs, but even at that age he would had known of consequences he faced if caught.
Chaudry was sentenced to 28 months detention and will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence.
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