Brooklyn Thomas told police he was coerced into dealing after running up a £10,000 debt — but a judge said the account, if true, showed only the “dark world” he had entered.
A cocaine dealer from Llanelli has been jailed after telling police he was forced into selling drugs by an Albanian organised crime gang.
Brooklyn Thomas, 27, claimed the gang had provided him with sex workers, leaving him with a £10,000 debt he was then told to work off, Swansea Crown Court heard.
But the judge said that even if the account were true, it served only to illustrate the “dark world” of drug dealing and the people of “evil intent” within it.
The case was first reported by WalesOnline.
The court heard Thomas was arrested in April after a police officer in Llanelli spotted two men talking on their phones near the town’s railway station.
Both men separately walked into a nearby pathway before emerging shortly afterwards and going their own ways, prosecutor Sian Cutter said.
The officer, suspecting a drugs deal had taken place, followed Thomas to a BMW and arrested him.
Officers seized two phones and £210 in cash, and a search uncovered six underweight 1g deals of high-purity cocaine hidden in his underwear.
When police examined his phone, they found a recently received message reading: “I am walking down to grab some cash now. Are you able to do one?”
A search of his home turned up two sets of weighing scales with traces of cocaine, along with a small amount of cannabis.
The court heard messages on his Samsung phone relating to cocaine supply stretched back to January 2025, including references to “one of the boys” delivering deals for him.
Further messages about drug supply were recovered from Facebook, Snapchat and WhatsApp.
In his first police interview, Thomas said he had been selling drugs under coercion from the crime group.
He told officers he had met members of the gang after using a website to pay for a sex worker, and that after they provided him with several that day, he was left owing £10,000 and told he would have to work to clear the debt.
Claims of Albanian organised crime have surfaced in other Llanelli-area drugs cases. In May, a man trafficked from Albania was jailed over an £82,000 cannabis factory overlooking Llanelli’s North Dock after telling police he was working off a debt to the gang that smuggled him into Britain.
In January, another man was jailed over a cannabis factory in nearby Kidwelly, having claimed he turned to organised crime to repay debts linked to his journey to the UK.
Thomas, of Campbell Street, Llanelli, admitted possession of cocaine with intent to supply, being concerned in the supply of cocaine, possession of criminal property and possession of cannabis.
He had previously entered a basis of plea, which was later withdrawn. He has previous convictions for dishonesty but none for drugs.
Matt Murphy, for Thomas, said his client had a supportive mother but a father who had been a drug user and first gave him cannabis at 16.
He said Thomas had trained as a painter and decorator and later worked in a car parts factory, but had struggled to find permanent work with limited qualifications.
His time on remand had acted as a “reset”, the barrister said.
Judge Huw Rees said Thomas came from Pwll — an area he knew to have “lots of good people” — before moving to the Morfa area of Llanelli and falling “in with bad company”.
The judge said there was already “far too much” Class A drugs in Llanelli and Burry Port without Thomas adding to it.
He told the defendant to reflect on the worry he had caused his mother, who had given him “nothing but unconditional love and support”.
Thomas was sentenced to three years in prison, with credit for his guilty pleas. He will serve up to half in custody before being released on licence.
“Nobody in this court wants someone from Pwll to come before the courts again,” the judge told him.
