A TEENAGE drug dealer who ran “a busy drugs line” and started trafficking cocaine just weeks following his 18th birthday has been locked up.

Talented footballer Max Luff was “mixing with unpleasant people” and turned to crime after losing his job because of coronavirus, Newport Crown Court heard.

• Sign up to our Crime and Court newsletter to get all the day’s news direct to your inbox

The defendant was caught as police were conducting a drugs raid at a house in Chepstow’s Bowsher Court on June 9 last year.

Prosecutor Marian Lewis said Luff was a passenger in a Ford Fiesta which had been driven into the cul-de-sac by Simon Bell.

READ MORE

His co-defendant Bell tried to perform a three-point turn to leave but an officer spotted him and stopped the car.

It emerged that Luff had just sold £40 worth of cocaine to Bell, and police found more class A drugs hidden in the latter's boxer shorts.

Miss Lewis told how Luff was carrying cocaine with a potential street value of £640, and his mobile phone was seized.

She said: “Gwent Police drugs expert Detective Constable Sean Meyrick stated that the defendant was running a busy drugs line with regular and consistent customers.”

Luff, 18, of Raglan Way, Bulwark, Chepstow, pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply.

Bell, 36, of Pembroke Road, Bulwark, Chepstow, admitted possession of cocaine.

Matthew Roberts, mitigating for Luff, asked the court to take into account his client’s early guilty plea, his young age and lack of previous convictions.

His barrister said: “This is a young man at the bottom of the drugs chain. The very bottom.

“He started off using cannabis but then his recreational use of cocaine spiralled out of control.

“The defendant left school and was a hard grafter.

“He worked in the entertainment industry but lost his job because of the pandemic. He turned to drugs to make money.

“It is a crying shame that a young man of 18 finds himself in the crown court facing an immediate custodial sentence.

“He was mixing with fairly unpleasant company.”

The court was told that Luff was a talented footballer.

The judge, Recorder Paul Lewis QC, told him: “You were not pressurised or intimidated. You knew fully well what you were doing.”

Luff was sent to a young offender institution for two years and ordered to pay a surcharge after his release from custody.

At an earlier hearing at Cwmbran Magistrates’ Court, Bell was fined £292 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £34 surcharge.