Cashpoint queue clue led police to drug dealing duo

A QUEUE of people using a cash machine led police to drug dealers, a court has heard.

- JASON EVANS Reporter

Eagle-eyed officers recognised the people waiting to get money from the machine as known drug users, and following them led police to a car being used by dealers offering cocaine, crack, ketamine and heroin.

Jailing dealers Kelly Hopkins and Sion Harrison, a judge at Swansea Crown Court told them he was not going to lecture them, but said he hoped they would come to understand the harm drugs were doing to communities in Swansea.

Megan Williams, prosecuting, told the court that on the night of October 24 this year officers on patrol in Swansea's High Street saw a group of known drug users withdrawing money from a cash machine outside the CK shop opposite the railway station. She said that as officers kept watch, the group made their way to nearby Tontine Street where they approached a car.

The court heard that officers saw what they believed to be drugs transactions taking place between the group and the occupants of the vehicle, and they moved in.

Police arrested the driver of the car, Hopkins, and her rear seat passenger, Harrison, along with two other occupants.

When Hopkins was searched she was found to be in possession of five wraps of heroin and 32 pregabalin tablets. In the car, officers found a plastic tub containing white rocks, three phones and “drugs paraphernalia” including weighing scales.