Jail for Merseyside drug runner

A Merseyside man who brought a haul of class A drugs worth over £75,000 in to south Wales has been sentenced.

Daniel Jason Kenwright-Harbourne, aged 24, of Mersey Street, St Helens, was caught bringing the drugs in to the Dyfed-Powys Police area in early October (2019), when the black Ford Focus he was driving was pulled over near Brecon.

Officers from the force’s Roads Policing Unit, and Priority Policing Team, which targets organised crime groups who traffic drugs from cities to the area’s small towns, were acting on intelligence when they carried out the stop.

A package wrapped in black plastic, which weighed half a kilo, was found stashed under the front passenger seat of the car during a search.  It contained over 300 deals of heroin, 400 of crack cocaine, and another large wrap of heroin.

Detective Sergeant Andrew Clatworthy said: “The gangs who arrange for these illegal and harmful substances to enter our communities don’t respect borders, so neither do police. We will continue working with our law enforcement colleagues across the UK to build a picture of these activities and put an end to them.”

Kenwright-Harbourne tried to claim the drugs, which were destined for sale in Llanelli and Swansea, were planted in the car by someone else.

He was arrested and taken to Ammanford custody suite, and was charged with supplying heroin and crack cocaine the next day (on October 3).

DS Clatworthy continued: “The speed with which Kenwright-Harbourne was arrested and convicted at court sends out a clear message –  Dyfed-Powys Police takes the supply of drugs in our communities seriously, and we will endeavour to  do everything in our power to bring those who supply drugs, be it County Lines or otherwise, to justice as quickly as possible.

“I want to reassure the public that we are working closely with partners to reduce drug misuse within our communities, to make it a less lucrative market for drug suppliers to operate in, and in doing so, making Carmarthenshire an even safer place to live.”

At Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court, on Thursday, January 9, Kenwright-Harbourne was sentenced to serve four years and eight months in prison.

County Lines is a national issue, where organised crime groups from cities manipulate children and vulnerable adults into carrying and selling drugs.

‘Runners’, like Kenwright-Harbourne, will be sent across county boundaries to areas like Llanelli, Newtown, and Haverfordwest to deliver and/or sell Class A drugs at the other end of the ‘line’.

The County Lines groups tend to use a local property, generally belonging to a vulnerable person, sometimes drug users, as a base for their activities. This is known as ‘cuckooing’ and will often happen by force or coercion.

Two other members of a Liverpool organised crime group were jailed at the end of 2019, for their involvement in this type of drug dealing model in Carmarthenshire.

Nicholas David Cleary, aged 28, of Cheviot Road, Liverpool, was sentenced to three years and nine months on December 13 2019.

Robert Pullen, aged 55, of Bassett Terrace, Llanelli, was sentenced to six years on November 1 2019.