A Port Talbot drug dealer found “covered in cocaine” at the wheel of a crashed car on Boxing Day has been jailed for five years.
Ryan Tucker, 27, of Gwyn Terrace, Port Talbot, was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court after pleading guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine, amphetamine and cannabis.
The five-year sentence means he now joins his older brother Nathan Tucker behind bars – both convicted of running their own cocaine dealing operations from the family home in Port Talbot, both supplied from Merseyside.
The court heard that on Boxing Day 2025, officers received reports of a crashed and damaged VW Golf in Port Talbot.
When they arrived, they found Ryan Tucker at the wheel – covered in cocaine.
A search of the car uncovered almost 40g of cocaine and almost 100g of cannabis.
Tucker was taken to hospital and subsequently placed in a medically induced coma for a period.
His phone was later seized, and officers found multiple Snapchat conversations between Tucker and others about the buying and selling of cocaine and cannabis.
The Boxing Day crash was not Tucker’s first encounter with police that year.
Months earlier, in August 2024, officers had searched the Tucker family home on Gwyn Terrace after spotting what they believed to be a drugs exchange on the street outside.
That search led to the arrest of Tucker’s brother Nathan, with officers finding a machete behind the sofa, tubs of benzocaine – a common cutting agent – and a one-kilo block of compressed cocaine that had been sent special delivery from Liverpool the day before.
Nathan Tucker was later sentenced to six years and eight months for being concerned in the supply of cocaine.
Ryan Tucker was arrested at the same address weeks later, with police seizing his phone and £3,125 in cash. He refused to give officers his PIN – but they got into the device anyway, finding messages about cocaine and amphetamine deals stretching back twelve months.
In some of the messages, Tucker referred to selling cocaine on behalf of “Scousers” and to owing the Merseysiders money.
He answered “no comment” to all questions asked and was released under investigation – only to be arrested again four months later after the Boxing Day crash.
Tucker has 23 previous convictions for 56 offences, including violence, driving matters and possession of cannabis.
Caitlin Brazel, for Tucker, told the court he now appreciated the enormity of what he had done. She said he had a “rather unstable upbringing” and that the loss of a brother in 2020 had sent his life on a “downward spiral” of nightmares, addiction and mental health issues.
Sentencing him, Judge Geraint Walters said Tucker had been distributing drugs for a Liverpool gang “in a not insignificant way” – and that after being arrested and released under investigation, he had simply returned to dealing.
The judge told him that as he approached his 30th year, he needed to decide whether he was going to continue being “a nuisance” or try to turn his life around.
Detective Inspector Richard George of South Wales Police said Tucker had a long list of prior offences. “He failed to learn his lesson from any of them and is now heading for a long spell in prison,” he said.
George said the case should serve as a warning. “Cocaine and the Class A drug trade cause untold harm to the lives of so many in our communities – both the users and their families, friends and neighbours. We will relentlessly pursue anyone involved in this trade and bring them to justice,” he said.
The Tucker brothers’ Liverpool connection reflects a wider pattern of cocaine being supplied into south-west Wales from Merseyside. Six men from south Wales were previously jailed for mass cocaine supply, while a Swansea man was convicted as part of a transatlantic yacht cocaine plot – both demonstrating the scale of the trade reaching south-west Wales.
Tucker will serve up to half his five-year sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
