'Gangster' drug dealer had axe in his bedroom

A TEENAGER who dropped hundreds of pounds worth of heroin and crack cocaine out of a window as the police raided his flat in Stratford-upon-Avon has been jailed.

Akeem Wright told officers he was a gangster and threatened them during the earky morning raid on his flat at Oakdene Court, Clopton Road, on 31st January.

The 19-year-old, who kept an axe and knives in his bedroom, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to possessing 58 wraps of crack cocaine and 30 wraps of heroin in January with intent to supply them, and was jailed for two years and nine months’ detention.

Prosecutor Mark Phillips said that police executed a search warrant at Wright’s flat, where he was the sole occupant, and as they went in, one of the officers saw Wright drop something out of a window.

In the flat the police found three wraps of heroin in a cupboard under the bathroom sink, a set of scales in the kitchen and knives and an axe in the bedroom.

And when they recovered the package Wright had dropped out of the window it was found to contain 58 wraps of crack cocaine and a further 27 wraps of heroin.

Mr Phillips said that, based on the total weight of the two drugs, the heroin was worth £280 and the crack anything between £600 and £1,200.

The court heard that at the time of his arrest Wright was on bail for possessing various drugs, for which he is awaiting sentence at Northampton Magistrates’ Court, and that he had previous convictions for offences including burglary, battery and robbery.

Kerrie-Ann Rowan, defending, said Wright, who had lived with his family until recently, had left school at 17 with good GCSE results and then went to college to study software programming.

But he had to drop out of that course after being sentenced to a detention and training order for the robbery offence in 2014.

She argued: “Putting him into prison at his age for a long period may be the first stage in setting him on the path of being an adult recidivist.

“It would be my submission this is an appropriate case to be sentenced as a lesser role. It was not a large amount of drugs, it was less than £1,500 worth. He is clearly on the bottom rung of the ladder.”

But sentencing Wright, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC, told him: “You were a street dealer. You had an axe and knives in the bedroom, and you were aggressive when you were arrested and told officers you were a gangster from Wolverhampton and you were going to f*** them up.

“You were motivated by financial advantage, and you fall firmly into the category of significant role.”