Northern Ireland

Three Co Down men sentenced for organised cocaine and cannabis dealing operation

THREE men from Newcastle in Co Down were sentenced today for their roles in an "organised'' cocaine and cannabis dealing operation in the seaside town.

Ringleader Brendan Cope (34), of Burrendale Park,was jailed for one year with a further 18 months on supervised licence.

'Bookkeeper' Charles McClimond (37), of Bernagh Green, was handed a two year sentence suspended for two years.

Patrick Green (26) of Dunwellan Park, was given a combination order of 60 hours community service along with two years probation.

Judge Geoffrey Miller QC said the sentences were to reflect their various roles in the drug supply operation.

All three pleaded guilty at Downpatrick Crown Court to possessing cocaine and cannabis with intent to supply.

It was the prosecution's case that at 8pm on November 30, 2018 police carried out a search of a house Cope was living at on the Burrendale Road under a Misuse of Drugs Act warrant and found the three defendants in the living room.

Police noticed cannabis and cash "scattered around the living room floor'' and also in several other rooms.

The search also recovered two dogs, a crossbow, a phone and two hammers. Fingerprint analysis linked Cope to a notebook, two sets of weighing scales, cling film and to a bag of cash.

A total of 105.19 grammes of cocaine, 68.23 grammes of herbal cannabis and 220 diazepam tablets were seized along with £3,919.68p in cash.

The court heard Cope was jailed in 2005 for causing the death of a man in Newcastle by dangerous driving the previous year. As a result of that accident, he was receiving medication for sleeping problems and "flashbacks'' of the incident.

Judge Miller noted that he has 76 previous convictions - 19 for road traffic offences, one for robbery, multiple offences of dishonesty, public order matters and eight for drug offences.

Defence barrister Sean Doherty submitted that Cope got involved in these offences as he "owed a debt to a person well known to the police for the supply of drugs in the Newcastle area''.

Unemployed McClimond had a limited criminal record of three offences which were dealt with in the magistrates' courts, one for possessing Class A drugs and two for possession of Class B drugs.

In his mitigation, McClimond said he was a drug user and bought his drugs from Cope. He said he became involved in the drug dealing operation by being the "bookkeeper'' as he was "reliable and under the radar'' and in return he received free drugs.

Single man Green made the case that he was at Cope's house on the evening of the police raid to buy cannabis for his own personal use and not involved in any other way.

Green has 17 convictions, including one for burglary and four for possession of drugs. Both Green and McClimond were assessed as a medium likelihood of reoffending.