A teenager who was released from custody last year for dealing heroin and cocaine has been sentenced again after returning to drug dealing within months of his release. 😲
Liam Devois, 19, of Robert Street, Manselton, Swansea, pleaded guilty to multiple charges including being concerned in the supply of cocaine, ketamine and cannabis.
Swansea Crown Court heard that police discovered Devois’ involvement while examining a seized phone from another investigation, where they found messages from a contact listed as “LD cheap powder”.
When officers searched his home on March 16, they found quantities of ketamine and cannabis along with drug paraphernalia in his bedroom, while a shed in the garden contained “white powder”, empty snap-bags and a Nokia phone.
The prosecutor revealed Devois had been sending bulk text messages advertising cocaine, ketamine and cannabis for sale since January 2025, with officers also finding a “tick list” of money owed.
Stuart John, defending, told the court his client was released from his previous sentence in September last year and initially “came out with the best of intentions” and secured a job with the council. However, after losing this job, he began associating with “the old crowd” and fell back under the influence of an “older and negative peer group”.
Judge Paul Thomas KC told Devois: “By the time you have completed the sentence I’m about to give you, you will have spent your late teenage years and early 20s in custody. Those are some of the best years of a person’s life and you will never get them back.”
The judge added it was down to the defendant’s “stupidity” that he had returned to drug dealing after being released, questioning whether the teenager “would be so stupid as to return to it again” in the future.
Devois was sentenced to four years detention in a young offenders institution. He will serve up to half that sentence in custody before being released on licence. 📋
