A 20-YEAR-OLD man has been sentenced to a total of three years and eight months in prison after he was caught selling cocaine worth up to £6,000 on the streets of Barry.
Rio Dinnall of Newport was chased by plain clothed police officers from the Organised Crime Unit after he was spotted acting suspiciously in Clos Y Rheilffordd on 20th June.
The officer chased him through a housing estate and Dinnall, who at one point armed himself with a crutch, was arrested. When the officers retraced Dinnall’s steps, they found small wraps of crack cocaine in a front garden.
CCTV captured Dinnall discarding the drugs moments before he was arrested, and police also recovered a Nokia burner phone.
Appearing at Cardiff Crown Court, Dinnall admitted possession with intent to supply crack cocaine. The court heard that Dinnall gave a no comment interview to detectives following his arrest.
Prosecutor Martha Smith-Higgins told the court: “The defendant threw away a white package towards some bushes, but it bounced back on to the pavement. There were 150 wraps of cocaine with a potential street value of between £4,500 and £6,000.
“The defendant was selling directly to users and there was an expectation of significant financial advantage.”
Dinnall’s offence was committed while he was the subject of a 16-month suspended custodial sentence for a similar crime, and in 2022, he was convicted of threatening a person with a bladed article in a public place.
Ross McQuillan-Johnson, representing Dinnall, told the court his client had been stabbed in the head over a drugs debt, and that his best mitigation was his early guilty plea.
Judge Daniel Williams told Dinnall: “You found yourself in debt, and as a result, you sought to pay it off by going back to your old ways.”
The judge jailed Dinnall for two years and eight months for possession with intent to supply a class A drug and a consecutive prison term of 12 months for being in breach of a suspended sentence, meaning he was handed a total sentence of three years and eight months, though he will serve no more than half that time in prison, and he will have to pay a victim surcharge upon his release.
The judge also ordered the seizure and destruction of the drugs and the mobile phone.
Detective Inspector Tim Jones said: “Drug dealers live a life on the run looking over their shoulder. We know who they are and officers are out looking for them day and night.
“We will not tolerate drugs in our communities. We act upon the information provided to us by the public, so please keep it coming and continue to work with us.”
By Marcus Stead – News Reporter
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