A man of Maltese descent was sentenced to five years in a Welsh prison for his involvement in a major drug pedalling ring in Cardiff, Times of Malta has learnt.
Damien Farrugia, 34, formed part of a seven-man heroin gang that was jailed for a total of more than 40 years.
The men have been described by the Welsh police as being among the country’s main drug smuggling gangs.
The drug ring had been moving large amounts of the illegal substance from Liverpool and other parts of Northern England into Southern Wales.
Those jailed were found with about five kilos of the drug worth between €500,000 and €650,000 but having a street value exceeding €1.6 million.
Drugs had a street value exceeding €1.6 million
It is not known how long Mr Farrugia has been residing in his Welsh home in Fairwater but South Wales police say he formed part of the heroin gang for at least two years.
Although the gang members, described as “Mr Normals” by a judge at the Cardiff Crown Court, were sentenced last Friday, they had been the subject of intense police investigations since March 2013.
Detective Inspector Tracey Rankine, who headed the squad, said the police had swooped on the gang’s safe house in a quiet residential cul-de-sac in Butetown, Cardiff, after spotting their money handler leaving the rented house.
The police spotted Mr Farrugia’s associate leaving the house carrying a JD Sports gym bag. When asked what was inside, the man promptly replied “cash”. About €90,000, neatly bundled up in amounts of between €3,000 and €15,000, was found.
Police said each stack had been labelled with their value and a name or code name. They are believed to be payments from different lower-level dealers who had helped the gang sell the drugs.
The police then proceeded to raid the house in question where they found a “wholesale” stock of five kilos of heroin.
Packages were hidden in different parts of the house, from sock drawers to garden bins, and had been tightly sealed with brown tape. Ms Rankine said that what followed was a “layered” investigation by the Welsh Organised Crime Unite over many months. They seized several Blackberry phones, which the gang had been using to communicate with via its messenger application.
It was through the trail of messages that the Welsh police were able to piece together an understanding of the scale of the ring’s drug network.
Ms Rankine said the thread of messages had mentioned several bulk buyers which Mr Farrugia’s associates would use to pedal the drugs throughout Cardiff.
Another two people are expected to be taken to court this week in connection with the ring’s operation.