A MAJOR drug dealer was using various businesses as a front for selling cocaine.

Andrew Llewellyn, 36, from Tredegar had a contact in London who would supply him with the class A drug via Turkey.

The defendant was responsible for trafficking at least 1.3kg of cocaine, Newport Crown Court was told.

Llewellyn used car valeting, property and watch selling businesses as a cover.

Nuhu Gobir, prosecuting, said: “He was organising and directing the supply of cocaine on a commercial scale.

“This business was the defendant's business and he was adulterating the drugs.

“There was also an expectation of substantial financial advantage in this case.

“It is also clear that the defendant was using a business as cover – from car valeting, selling watches or his property businesses.”

Llewellyn, of Maes Morgan, Nantybwch was found guilty by a jury following a trial of being concerned in the supply of cocaine.

He had denied the charge.

The defendant’s offending took place between January 1, 2020 and December 1, 2020.

Llewellyn, who is a married man with a child, had no relevant previous convictions.

His barrister Andrew Taylor said his client’s car valeting business had been set up before he started drug dealing.

"He is well thought of in this community,” he added.

“The defendant is very much a community man who helps out with young people and helps out with sport.

“And he is a rock so far as the family is concerned, in all sorts of different ways, and he's highly thought of.

“He's not somebody in my submission who is going to reoffend.

“This has been a very hard lesson. It'll be his first taste of custody and it will be a harsh taste.”

The judge, Recorder Greg Bull KC, told Mr Taylor that he was unimpressed that Llewellyn’s nine-year-old daughter had written a letter to him.

“She asking for mercy for her father. Of course she loves her father,” he added.

Llewellyn was jailed for seven years and is due to serve half of that sentence before being released on licence.

He is set to face a proceeds of crime hearing in January 2025.