Drug Dealers Jailed After Primary School Drug Bust

Two young heroin and cocaine dealers have been jailed after being caught operating near Hafod Primary School in Swansea with a total of 100 individual drug deals 💊⚖️

Jayley Rickman, 21, from Weston-super-Mare, and Harry Thompson, 18, from Swansea, were spotted by members of the public on the steps leading from Odo Street to Cwm Road on 19th June. Plain-clothed officers from the organised crime team swooped on the pair in an unmarked car.

Rickman was found with three cocaine deals in his hand and a bag containing 37 wraps of heroin and cocaine beside him on the steps. He also had a lock-knife and £70 in cash. Thompson, who tried to run but was chased and caught, was carrying a Nokia burner phone and a coffee jar down his shorts containing 60 individual wraps of heroin and cocaine.

The Nokia had been sending bulk text messages to around 40 contacts, including one saying: “Three for 25 all day” – sent shortly before police arrived. A “dealer’s list” in the phone’s notes showed one person owing £1,650.

Rickman was already on licence from a 45-month sentence for dealing crack and heroin in Weston-super-Mare and had been recalled to prison in November 2024. His whereabouts were unknown until his arrest in Swansea. Thompson was on bail to Gwent Police for suspected involvement in supplying ketamine and heroin.

Judge Paul Thomas KC at Swansea Crown Court told them: “When you involved yourselves in dealing cocaine and heroin you would have known what kind of sentence awaited them.”

Andrew Evans, defending Rickman, said his client was “dogged by the events of his past” and people who had previously supplied drugs to him on credit “came after him” to recover the debt.

Alexandra Wilson, defending Thompson, said her client was homeless at the time of his arrest following a breakdown of his relationship with his mother.

Rickman was sentenced to four years and four months in prison, to be served concurrently with his recall period. Thompson received two years and four months detention in a young offenders institution. Both will serve half their sentences in custody before being released on licence.