Newport: Drugs gang jailed for exploiting vulnerable child

Dwayde Stock led a Newport drugs gang that exploited a vulnerable school boy

The leader of drugs gang who recruited a vulnerable 15-year-old boy in a phone call from prison has been sentenced to nine years in jail.

Dwayde Stock, 28, from Newport was recorded speaking to the teenager on a prison phone while he was on remand in April 2022.

Five other members of the Newport-based "county lines" drugs gang were jailed.

Swansea Crown Court heard how the group exploited the boy to sell drugs to teenagers in Neath.

Stock and two other men from Newport; David Allen, 30, and Justin Henshall, 36, pleaded guilty to trafficking a child and conspiracy to supply a class A drug.

Allen was sentenced to eight years and three months in prison, while Henshall was given a jail term of six years and eight months.

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Stock was recorded speaking on a prison phone to Allen, the court was told, describing him as "the man on the outside" helping to recruit young boys to sell class A drugs to customers in Neath.

During the conversation Allen puts the young boy on the phone, with Stock calling him "juve", indicating that he knows the boy is a juvenile.

Mobile phone records indicate the boy travelled between Neath and Newport for the gang, with members contacting him 324 times by phone in less than six months.

David Allen (left) and Justin Henshall were jailed for drugs and modern slavery offences

Emma Harris, prosecuting, told the court the boy was "specifically targeted by the group due to his vulnerabilities and due to the belief which the defendants had that he could be easily controlled and sent to work on their behalf".

In another recorded prison call from March of 2022, Stock discusses the ethnicity of boys being recruited as drug runners in Neath with Henshall.

In the conversation Henshall says he "struggling to find people to go up the roads" explaining how it would be "no good for black people" and how they need a "young white boy to go up there".

Stock agrees, saying how he knows "this kid" who "owes me 12 bills".

Ms Harris said the exchanges "demonstrated that the defendants were aware that the youths they were recruiting would need to be inconspicuous within the area they were operating."

Three other gang members were sentenced for conspiracy to supply a class A drugs:

• Joshua Jefferies, 32, was sentenced to three years and eight months in jail

• Ottis Jefferies, 28, to three years and four months

• Bernard Hurely, 37, to three years and four months

Kenzie Booth, 19, form Newport and Ruth Lawrence, 38, from Tonypandy in Rhondda Cynon Taf also admitted the same charge.

They are due to be sentenced next month after pre-sentence reports are completed.

Joshua Jefferies (left), Bernard Hurely (middle) and Ottis Jefferies admitted drug offences

Louisa Robertson from CPS Cymru-Wales, said modern slavery legislation was used to "destroy a county lines network and protect a teenage boy".

"These criminals targeted young males who had an air of vulnerability and could be manipulated and taken advantage of as drug runners," she said.

"The prosecution case included mobile phone evidence which included messages showing the hierarchy of the group and the roles each defendant played within the operation."