09-05-2025
Drug dealer tried to throw his stash over a fence when police turned up
An Anglesey drug dealer was caught "red handed" with cocaine. When police stopped Mathew Cai Jones he pretended he needed to go to the toilet in an alley and threw the drugs over a fence.
But the defendant, now 21, of Ffordd Beibio, Holyhead, was arrested. A judge at Caernarfon Crown Court today jailed him for two years for possession with intent to supply cocaine on November 17, 2023.
Prosecutor Joseph Lees said police got a call from someone in Holyhead at 3.30pm on November 7, 2023 about a domestic argument. You can sign up for all the latest court stories here
Officers arrived and found Jones and his partner walking away. They approached them and they denied arguing even though Jones had a cut lip, the court heard.
Jones said he needed to go to the toilet and he went away but a police officer saw him throw something over a wire fence. He was arrested and police found a Golden Virginia tobacco pouch containing 33 bags of white powder.
He was searched and was found to be carrying £422.45 in cash. Police also searched Jones' home and found a cannabis grinder, scales, a Tupperware box containing snap bags of cocaine, other drugs, and a plastic bag with a cannabis logo on it.
Some of the cocaine had an 80% purity. A mobile phone had messages with evidence of drug dealing, the court heard.
The total amount of drugs was said to be worth £4,080, a police expert found. Richard Edwards, defending Jones, said he had been an addict and in debt. He has turned his life around, is in a relationship and has got a job.
There were "glowing references" from people at a campsite in Porthmadog where he used to work. But the judge His Honour Rhys Rowlands pointed out that in February 2023 Jones had been given a suspended sentence for possession of the Class B drug ketamine with intent to supply but had gone on to peddle Class A cocaine around Anglesey a few months later.
He said Jones was not naive and knew the risk he was running "but nonetheless it was a risk you chose to take". He had been caught red-handed.
Jones was also given a concurrent, 27-month jail term for being concerned in the supply of cocaine from May to November 2023, and a consecutive term of six months in jail was imposed from a suspended sentence for earlier offending. There was no separate penalty for possession of cannabis in November 2023.
