A DRUG dealer was back in business almost as quickly as he left jail.

Joe Brown, 28, from Newport was released on licence last autumn halfway through a 40-month prison sentence for supplying cocaine and crack cocaine.

He soon returned to his old habits and was involved in a drugs line supplying addicts across the city with heroin and crack cocaine.

Andrew Davies, prosecuting, told Newport Crown Court: “Almost immediately following his release from custody in November 2023, he went on to start supplying in large amounts in the city via the drugs line.”

Brown would send out multiple text bombs advertising drugs for sale – sometimes to as many as 100 contacts at a time – and would also cook the crack cocaine himself.

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When he was arrested over the summer, police found he had several mobile phones at his home address as well as class A drugs and a tick list.

Brown, of Morden Road, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin, being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and possession with intent to supply crack cocaine.

He also admitted possession of criminal property which were in the form of an electric bike and clothing.

The offences were committed between December 27, 2023 and July 18 this year.

Alice Sykes representing Brown said her client’s best mitigation was his guilty pleas.

“When he went to prison last time he was in a huge amount of debt and fell back into drug dealing,” she added.

Judge Matthew Porter-Bryant told the defendant that had he been convicted following a trial, his jail sentence would have been one of six years behind bars.

Giving him the full one-third discount for his early guilty pleas, this reduced the term to one of four years in prison.

Brown heard he would serve half of that time in custody before being released on licence.

The time he has spent remanded in custody will count towards that sentence.