Barry drug gang jailed for exploiting children

⚖️ A drug gang that exploited children as young as 15 whilst flooding Barry with class A drugs has been locked up for a combined 29 and a half years.

Dalton Raffel, 24, ran the criminal network which supplied crack cocaine and heroin across the town, using vulnerable youngsters to do his dirty work while he pulled the strings from behind the scenes.

The operation was exposed when detectives examining a mobile phone during an unrelated investigation discovered drugs lines connected to Raffel. Officers traced the network back to him and identified his accomplices.

Raffel, of Clare Road, Cardiff, received nine years behind bars after admitting conspiring to supply heroin and conspiring to arrange or facilitate travel of another with a view to exploitation.

His co-conspirators faced the courts alongside him at Cardiff Crown Court on December 23, where the full extent of their crimes was laid bare.

Chiko Moyo, 21, was handed nine and a half years for conspiring to supply heroin, two counts of conspiring to arrange or facilitate travel of another with a view to exploitation, and two counts of conspiring to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour.

Jonathan Beasley, 54, of Caenarvon Gardens, Barry, received seven and a half years for conspiring to supply heroin.

Daniel Groves, 24, was jailed for three and a half years for conspiring to supply heroin and possessing with intent to supply cocaine.

Kelly-Ann Hocking, 33, of Shelley Gardens, Barry, was convicted of conspiring to supply heroin and conspiring to arrange or facilitate travel of another with a view to exploitation. She is due to be sentenced in March next year.

Ashton Watkins, 18, of Crossways Road, Ely, convicted of conspiring to supply heroin, will be sentenced in January.

Temporary Detective Chief Inspector Tim Jones, Senior Investigating Officer, said: “Raffell and his accomplices were behind the supply of significant amounts of class A drugs. What makes their offences even worse is their exploitation of children – they didn’t think twice about putting them in danger and at serious risk, for their own greed and profit.

“The sad reality is that the exploitation of young children by drugs gangs is common practice – dealers will identify the most vulnerable in our communities and put them in harm’s way while running things in the background. This is happening today, in communities across south Wales, and we all have a responsibility and a moral obligation to look for the signs of exploitation and act on them. In doing so, we are putting the dealers behind bars but also rescuing and safeguarding children who for whatever reason have found themselves in the grip of what is a miserable and dangerous existence at the hands of criminals.”