'Significant' London county lines drug dealer jailed for eight years for pushing heroin and crack cocaine in Portsmouth

Londoner Adrian Thompson, 35, was handed his third custodial sentence for Class A drug dealing after the father-of-two was found to have played a ‘significant’ role in the operation from May to December last year.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard how Thompson was caught with 135 wraps of crack cocaine while a rear passenger in a taxi when it was stopped by police on Langstone Road, Kingston, at 8.45pm on December 15. Two small packages of cannabis for personal use were also found.

The 20g wraps were thought to have a street value of £2,560 to £3,200.

Six mobile phones were found with two of those including a Met Police alert, sparking a search at an address he was known to stay at in Surrey resulting in nearly £5,000 cash being seized.

Drug paraphernalia and razor blades were also found there.

Police analysis showed two of the phones were operated by a county lines network known as T-Line that had been dealing drugs ‘in Portsmouth for some time’, prosecutor Simon Walters said.

Investigations from the phones showed that 11 trips had been made from London to Portsmouth with officers estimating the number of Class A drugs sold was in ‘excess’ of two kilograms a day. ‘The journeys made were with the express function to reload local runners,’ Mr Walters said.

The court heard HMRC had no records of tax or benefits claimed from Thompson between 2016 to 2022.

But Thompson was found to have a Lloyds bank account with just under £33,400 in it with ‘unexplained cash credits’.

‘The banking evidence and from HMRC supports that the defendant had no legitimate means of income and was relying on criminal means to support himself and his family,’ Mr Walters said.

The prosecutor added: ‘He had the expectation of significant financial gain.’

Thomas Horder, defending, played down how high up Thompson was in the drugs chain after saying he had ‘contact with end users’.

He told the court the defendant fell into the world of drug gangs when he was a youth and received his first custodial sentence when he was 17 for drug offences.

Thompson’s drug offending continued with him going on to receive an eight-year sentence in 2010 before being released in 2014. During his time in jail he received ‘enhanced status’ and engaged well with support services but ultimately turned back to pushing drugs.

‘He went back to drug dealing over a drug debt in which he owed £7,500,’ Mr Horder said.

The court heard Thompson has a partner and two children, and his imprisonment would have a ‘real impact on his family’.

Thompson, of Mortimer Road, Croydon, admitted five offences including two of dealing Class A drugs heroin and crack cocaine, possessing a Class A drug with intent to supply, possessing a Class B drug, and possessing criminal property.

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Judge, Recorder Simon Foster, jailed Thompson for eight years – a year over the minimum term of seven years that can be imposed for a Class A drug dealer’s third offence.

‘You only have yourself to blame that you will not be around to bring up your children,’ he said.

The recorder added: ‘I very much hope that at the age of 35, for the sake of your family if nothing else, you will be able to put criminality behind you.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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