by A LOTTERY ticket helped catch a cocaine dealer who claimed he was making thousands of pounds selling Turkish cigarettes, a court has heard. Lee Gallagher claimed he was traveling to Turkey and returning the amount of tobacco he was selling before transferring the profits to someone in Birmingham – but phone evidence revealed the real source of the money.
Swansea Crown Court heard that an investigation into Gallagher led police to one of his partners who was running a “mobile shop” that offered cannabis, ketamine and LSD as well as coke to customers. The two dealers, and the man from the Midwest who was receiving the drug money, have been jailed. In sentencing them, the judge described the dealing of Class A drugs as an “evil” trade that brings misery to communities.
The case is the latest example of drug dealing in the seaside town of Aberystwyth. Last month a dozen members of an organized crime group that flooded Aberystwyth with hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of cocaine were jailed. The gang’s operation involved using car washes and turbine shops as “front” businesses, “embedding” reliable workers in the town, and smuggling asylum seekers into Mid Wales to act as messengers and dealers.
Matt Murphy, prosecuting, told the court that police arrested Gallagher in March 2021 at his home in Aberystwyth following an investigation into large amounts of money going in and out of his bank account. The officers seized his phone, two small sealed bags of cocaine, and a set of weighing scales with traces of white powder. The court heard that more than £44,000 in unexplained payments were transferred between April 2019 and October 2020 to a bank account in Birmingham and thousands of pounds flowed the other way. The Birmingham account turned out to belong to a man called Omar Yafari.
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Gallagher told officers the money transfers involved buying and selling the cigarettes. The defendant told the police that Yafari would send him money that he would use to travel to Turkey and buy cigarettes; he said he would then sell the tobacco in Aberystwyth before sending the profits back to Birmingham. Gallagher’s phone was seized and released under investigation while the mobile phone was downloaded and examined.
The court heard that the examination of Gallagher’s phone revealed his involvement in the sale of cocaine and in particular his association with a teenage dealer named Ethan Bablak-Land. Officers made arrest inquiries for the teen and found him in Aberystwyth town center on New Year’s Eve. When he was searched bags of cocaine, scales and cash were found on him. The court heard that Gallagher’s DNA was found outside the coke markets.
Messages later found on the teenager’s phone showed communications between himself and Gallagher about cocaine including discussions about quality and price, and requests from Bablak-Land to have coke “ticked” for resale. Also on the phone was a picture of weighing scales containing 7g of cocaine. The court heard that the picture also showed an Irish lottery ticket showing checks bought by Gallagher from Corbett’s bookmakers in Aberystwyth on December 22. he was offering to supply LSD.
Gallagher was arrested again and denied informing Bablak-Land. He said he had lost his phone and suggested that Bablak-Land would have to send the messages to himself to fix it. The court heard that CCTV footage obtained by police showed the two defendants together in Aberystwyth. When Yafari was interviewed he said that Gallagher was a relative of his, and at first he claimed that Gallagher had gone to Turkey to get his teeth done. For the latest court reports, sign up to our crime newsletter here
Ethan Bablak-Land, now 20, of Cryfryn Row, Aberystwyth, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, being concerned in the supply of cocaine, being concerned in the supply of ketamine, being concerned in the supply of cannabis, and offering to supply LSD when he returned to the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.
Gallagher, 37, of Penmaesglas Road in Aberystwyth, was previously convicted in a trial of conspiracy to supply cocaine while being concerned in the supply of cocaine when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has 30 previous convictions for 43 offenses of a “various nature” including sexual offences, public disorder and matters of violence. Omar Yafari, 36, of Camelot Way, Birmingham, was previously convicted of receiving criminal property – money – when he appeared in the dock with the other defendants. He has four previous convictions for five offenses including public disorder and criminal damage. At their trial Gallaher and Yafari were kept with the story of Turkish cigarettes.
Ieuan Rees, for Bablak-Land, said the defendant was only 17 years old when he first started dealing and said like many people before him his client started dealing with his own habit to finance. He said Bablak-Land had now “broken up with old partners” and said the defendant intended to “pursue a trade and become a productive member of society” when released from custody. Lewis Perry, for Gallagher, said the defendant stood by his position at trial that he was only involved in the buying and selling of tobacco and was not involved in the supply of controlled drugs. He said the defendant’s life took a “downward spiral” after his mother’s death and he suffered from severe anxiety and depression. David Singh, for Yafari, said there was no suggestion his client was aware of what the other defendants were doing in Aberystwyth.
Judge Geraint Walters said Class A drugs were a “blight” on Aberystwyth, and he pointed out from police that the main users were people who had moved to the town “in search of a better life”. He described the trade in Class A drugs as “evil” and said LSD was not a drug much heard of these days, although it seemed fashionable in Aberystwyth. He said Bablak-Land was operating a “mobile shop” for drugs, and said the jury rejected Gallagher and Yafari’s “cigarette sales story”.
Discounted by a quarter of his guilty pleas, Bablak-Land was sentenced to two years’ detention in a young offenders’ institution. Gallagher and Yafari, who were convicted at trial and therefore had no reduced sentence due to guilty pleas, were sentenced to three years and two years respectively in prison. The defendants will serve no more than half of their sentences in custody before being released on license to serve the remainder in the community.
Dyfed-Powys Police were unable to provide a custody picture of Yafari
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