AN “UPSCALE” cocaine supplier who was selling to low-level drugs dealers and running a cannabis factory from his home has been jailed.

Darryl Skym was on the police’s radar following an investigation into traffickers operating in the Caerphilly area.

Byron Broadstock, prosecuting, said officers had arrested four men who were drug dealing in the town.

Connor Jones, 23, Connor Cooper, 20, Ross Davies, and Mitchell Griffiths, both 18, were locked up earlier this month.

MORE NEWS:

Mobile phones seized from some of these suspects had implicated Skym.

Mr Broadstock told Cardiff Crown Court: “It was not a fledgling operation. He was an upscale supplier.

“The defendant was supplying wholesale quantities to low level dealers.”

Telephone evidence revealed how Skym was messaged that his “Charlie was flying”.

When police raided his home last month, they found it had been turned into a cannabis farm.

Skym, 25, of Coronation Terrace, Senghenydd, Caerphilly, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine and production of cannabis.

The offences were committed between March 28, 2020 and February 19, 2021.

He had one previous conviction after he was fined for the possession of cocaine by Haverfordwest magistrates.

Ed Mitchard, mitigating, asked for his client to be given the full third discount for his early guilty pleas.

He said Skym had turned to dealing drugs to fund his own cocaine habit after struggling financially during the coronavirus crisis.

Mr Mitchard added: “The cannabis factory was a modest one with 13 plants.”

Judge David Wynn Morgan told Skym: “The telephone evidence against you was particularly damning.

“You were farming cannabis at home. You abused the goodwill of your landlord by turning the house into a cannabis factory.”

The defendant was jailed for three years and six months and ordered to pay a £190 victim surcharge after his release from prison.

There was no application for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.