Thomas Davies and Jack Davies (Image: South Wales Police)
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A man who ran a family drug operation in the Rhondda – employing his brother, parents and partner – has been told to hand over just a fraction of the fortune he made flooding south Wales with cocaine.
Thomas Davies, 39, of Buckley Road, Trealaw, Tonypandy, profited by nearly £1.4m through a large-scale conspiracy to supply cocaine and crack cocaine. But at a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday, Judge Paul Hobson was told he had available assets of just £41,000 – and ordered him to pay that sum, which has already been handed over.
Thomas Davies was sentenced in 2024 to 16 years’ imprisonment for conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and cocaine and being concerned in arrangement to facilitate acquisition or control of criminal property.
The operation
The gang, headed by Thomas and his younger brother Jack Davies, 38, arranged for couriers to drive multi-kilogram loads of cocaine to south Wales from elsewhere in the UK. Once delivered, the drugs were diluted with cutting agents and sold on in quantities ranging from kilograms down to single grams.
Thomas’s partner, Nicole Locke, 32, handled the street-level end of the business, managing day-to-day gram sales and converting cocaine into crack.
The drugs factory
On February 9, 2021, police executed warrants targeting the Davies brothers. Officers discovered a purpose-built drugs factory hidden in a garage at the rear of Partridge Road, Trealaw, which the brothers had been renting for just £50 a month.
Inside, they recovered more than two kilograms of cocaine, 50kg of cutting agent, two hydraulic presses and blenders.
The family’s role
The brothers’ parents, Jacqueline Davies, 60, and Byron Davies, 67, laundered money generated by the operation. A safe found at Byron’s home contained £57,000 in cash. A shell company called Valley Self Storage was also established to wash the proceeds.
The couriers
Christopher Adams, 40, Scott Alway, 36, and Steven Evans, 39, transported bulk quantities of cocaine across the country for the group. When Evans was arrested, officers discovered £23,000 in cash inside a safe and more than £50,000 in unexplained funds in his bank accounts.
Gavin Etchell, 43, served as both a courier and a high-level street dealer, distributing ounce-level amounts of cocaine to other dealers. He was stopped by police on July 23, 2020, on the A40 trunk road in Monmouth while driving a BMW. Etchell was arrested for a separate matter, but when two of his mobile phones were seized and downloaded, they revealed evidence that he had been supplying cocaine on behalf of Thomas Davies.
