A man caught storing and bagging £55,000 worth of cocaine and cannabis at his Bradford home has been jailed for two and a half years.
Jacob Baker was warehousing the drugs and splitting them into deals for others to sell on, Bradford Crown Court heard on Wednesday.
Baker, 21, of Wingfield Street, Barkerend, Bradford, was arrested when the police raided his home on August 31, 2018, prosecutor Philip Adams said.
He pleaded guilty to possession of almost £5,000 worth of cocaine and £50,000 worth of cannabis bush with intent to supply it. The stash was stored in Sports Direct and Home Bargains bags and rows of plastic tubs.
Mr Adams said that Baker was immediately frank with drugs squad officers who walked into his home at 10.15am.
He showed them the large quantities of cannabis and cocaine and they also seized £9,919 in cash, phones, dealer bags, scales and lists.
In all, 124 grams of cocaine was found and 5.84 kilos of cannabis bush.
Messages on Baker’s phone showed that he was bagging up the drugs as well as storing them, the court was told.
One read: “There’s seven bags to be made, come on Bro, don’t mess about.”
“He was preparing the drugs for commercial supply as his address,” Mr Adams stated.
Baker made no comment when questioned by the police.
Mr Adams said his benefit from drug dealing was agreed to be £44,586, with his available assets being the cash seized from his home.
The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, made a confiscation order for £9,919. The money is already in the hands of the police.
Ben Thomas, Baker’s barrister, said he was a young man with no previous convictions, who was just 20 at the time.
“He’s come with a very large bag, fully prepared to receive a sentence of custody,” Mr Thomas told the court.
But the offences were so long ago that he urged the court to suspend the jail sentence.
“It is frankly a disgrace for him and for the public as a whole,” Mr Thomas said.
Baker had shown the police officers the drugs when they raided the house all those months ago.
Mr Thomas added: “It does seem remarkable that it has taken this long to come to court.
“He has learned his lesson and will not be troubling the courts again.
“The public interest is not served in January 2020 by sending a young man to custody for behaviour in August 2018.”
But Judge Durham Hall said that Baker, a heavy cannabis user at the time who was storing the drugs for money, knew exactly what he was doing.
“It is wicked, it is serious, and consequences will follow,” he said.
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