Hatton man jailed after police raid uncovers drugs

When the police raided Joseph Steele’s home they also found enough Benzocaine powder to cut cocaine into street deals worth up to £17,600.

At Warwick Crown Court Judge Marten Coates said it was clear Steele was a wholesaler who was supplying street-level dealers with cocaine.

Steele, 20, of Blackwell Lane, Hatton Park was jailed for three years and four months after pleading guilty to possessing cocaine and cannabis in June last year with intent to supply them and receiving stolen property.

Iain Willis, prosecuting, said that in April last year there was a burglary at a house in Truman Close, Warwick, in which numerous items were stolen including a camera, speakers and a Nintendo Wii games console.

On June 2 the police raided Steele’s home with a search warrant, and in his bedroom they found the items from the burglary.

Also in the room the officers found bags containing a total of 440 grams of Benzocaine, which is commonly used to cut cocaine to street deal levels of purity.

There were various quantities of cocaine worth nearly £200, and a 910 grams of cannabis which would have made 260 street deals worth £5,200.

Mr Willis pointed out that a police drugs expert had calculated that if the Benzocaine had been used to cut cocaine to a level of one per cent, it could have had a value once on the street of up to £17,600.

Judge Coates said: “One could conclude he had the cutting agent ready for fresh supplies to arrive.

“The raid took place on a day when supplies were low, and the Benzocaine was there to cut further cocaine when it came in.”

Police also found a dealer’s list with amounts on it which were too large to have been that of a street-level dealer which Mr Willis said suggested he was wholesale dealing rather than small scale retail.

Anthony Potter, defending, said: “He is certainly involved in a commercial operation.

“He told the probation officer he became involved because he had, over the course of a few years, secured a serious cocaine addiction and had come into debt to other people who were behind this.

“He was not by any means the mastermind behind this operation.”

When jailing Steele, Judge Coates said: “The most serious offence is possessing a class A drug, cocaine, with intent to supply.

“You are not at the top of the scale, but neither are you at the bottom.

“I find the Crown’s suggestion that you were probably supplying street dealers to be an inevitable conclusion to draw.”