A DRUG dealer serving a lengthy jail sentence who was caught with a mobile phone inside prison will have to serve more time behind bars.

Harri Pullen, from Newport, was using the device to contact his ex-girlfriend after their relationship broke down, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

The mobile was found after a search of the 22-year-old’s cell was carried out at Cardiff Prison last September, prosecutor Nik Strobl said.

It was discovered a month before Pullen, formerly of Crouch Close, Bettws, was sentenced to five years and six months in custody for trafficking heroin.

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The defendant was part of a 20-man drugs gang jailed for more than 165 years for their involvement in a multi-million pound heroin supply network, based in Liverpool with tentacles in Newport, Cardiff, Gloucester, Plymouth, and Hartlepool.

Pullen was convicted after trial at Newport Crown Court of conspiracy to supply a class A drug.

The gang were caught by the Tarian Regional Organised Crime Unit following a nine-month operation, codenamed Operation Jackdaw 2.

Speaking about the defendant’s conviction for having a mobile phone in prison, Mr Strobl said: “An intelligence search was carried out inside his cell. Officers asked him if he had a mobile phone and he said, ‘Yes.’

“The phone was found inside a tub of cream in a plastic glove.”

Ben Waters, mitigating, said: “The defendant received the phone from another inmate and was using it to contact his brother who he has a close relationship with.

Having a mobile phone in prison is a serious offence. They are much prized and can give unlimited access to others outside

“He had also experienced the breakdown of a relationship with his former partner and was using it to rekindle his relationship.”

Judge Richard Twomlow told him: “That’s what everyone says.”

Mr Waters insisted that there was no evidence to suggest the phone had been used in any “criminal activity”.

The court heard the mobile phone was a small device that was “not a smartphone” with no access to the internet.

Judge Twomlow told Pullen: “Having a mobile phone in prison is a serious offence.

"They are much prized and can give unlimited access to others outside the prison and all sorts of things can possibly happen.”

He jailed him for an additional eight months and told him he would have to pay a victim surcharge upon his release from custody.