Newport Drug Dealer’s Lavish Lifestyle Ends with Prison Term

Jerome Samuels, 31, was sentenced to 56 months imprisonment at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday after being found with heroin and cocaine worth £48,760. 😮

Samuels, of Monnow Way, Bettws, was arrested on January 26 this year in Newport after police recognised him getting out of a Vauxhall Insignia. A search revealed £5,650 in cash and a key to a Volkswagen Tiguan.

When officers located the Tiguan at Maesglas Crescent, they discovered JD Sports bags in the boot containing 205g of crack cocaine worth £20,020, 651g of heroin worth between £16,740 and £22,266, and 491g of cocaine worth £12,000.

The court heard Samuels was a “high level and wholesale supplier” involved at various stages of the enterprise, with voice notes on his phone referencing large amounts of controlled drugs.

Despite sobbing in the dock during sentencing, Judge Celia Hughes noted Samuels had lived a “lavish lifestyle with stays at penthouse flats and high-end hotels in Dubai.”

“When you became involved in dealing class A drugs you knew the risks that you could receive a substantial sentence. You took that risk despite having a family and having contact with three of your young children,” said Judge Hughes.

In mitigation, Julia Cox said her client was an abuser of cocaine and cannabis who fell into debt with dealers above him in the chain who enforced the debt and recruited him into dealing.

PC Thomas Meazey of Gwent Police stated: “Jerome Samuels funded a lavish and extravagant lifestyle through his criminal activities. The supply of drugs is not a victimless crime; it causes harm and misery not only to those involved and their families but also the wider community. We welcome the sentence imposed on Samuels and hope that it demonstrates that those involved in such criminal activity are not untouchable.”