Rees Manning, 42, panicked when he realised officers were outside his house about to execute a search warrant on the morning of October 15 (2024).
Desperate to avoid arrest, he threw cocaine worth thousands of pounds over his garden wall, later telling police that any packages found in that garden must have belonged to his neighbour.
But officers, who were making their way to the back gate of the property at the time, had seen everything. They seized the drugs – which turned out to be more than 50g of cocaine worth £3500 – and he was arrested.
He was also found to have cocaine along with £340 in cash in his tracksuit pocket and during a search of his house, officers recovered weighing scales, a quantity of snap-seal bags, a small amount of cannabis, and pregabalin tablets. There was evidence of drug dealing on a phone seized from Manning.
He went on to plead guilty to possessing crack cocaine with intent to supply, acquiring criminal property, namely cash, and possessing cannabis.
This was the fifth time Manning had been caught drug dealing – in the previous 20 years, he had served four prison sentences amounting to 17 years and four months for dealing heroin and cocaine. When he was arrested in October he was out of prison on licence.
Manning appeared at Swansea Crown Court on November 25 where he conceded to be a drug dealer but ‘not a good one’. With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas, he was jailed for six years and four months.
The defendant will serve up to half that sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
[Lead image: South Wales Police]
Discover more from Swansea Bay News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
