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When police raided Tata Steel worker Nathan Tucker’s home they found the still-wrapped parcel on top of his wardrobe
A drug dealer whose house was raided following a suspected drugs transaction had a kilo of cocaine sent from Merseyside to him by Royal Mail special delivery. When police raided the home of Tata Steel worker Nathan Tucker they found the still-wrapped parcel tucked away on top of the wardrobe in his bedroom.
Although he refused to give up the pin code to his phone, the officers were able to gain limited access and found a video which suggested the parcel in the bedroom had not been the first such delivery from Merseyside. Jailing the 33-year-old dad at Swansea Crown Court, a judge said it was clear he had been dealing cocaine on a “significant scale”.
Dean Pulling, prosecuting, told the Welsh court that officers from South Wales Police’s organised crime team were operating in Port Talbot town centre when they saw a suspected drugs transaction taking place in a lane off Gwyn Terrace. One of the men involved in the deal “jogged away” while the other was seen to enter a house in Gwyn Terrace.
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WalesOnline reported how the court heard the jogging man was followed and detained and was found to have a small pink plastic bag in the waistband of his trousers which turned out to contain 1.7g of cocaine. The decision was taken to raid the house the other male had been seen entering and inside the property officers found Tucker, two children, and a woman “suspected of being his mother”.
The court heard that clenched in Tucker’s fist were a number of small pink bags of the kind the jogger had been found in possession of. These were found to contain 3.4g of cocaine. The house was searched and behind a sofa in the living room officers found a machete while in the kitchen was a box of pink nappy bags of the kind officers had previously encountered and in the toilet was a wicker basket with a container holding 174g of cocaine along with weighing scales.
In Tucker’s bedroom officers found kilo tubs of benzocaine – a common cutting or mixing agent used in drug deals – more weighing scales containing traces of white powder, £620 in cash, and a Pukka-brand notebook with dealer’s tick lists. The court heard that on top of the wardrobe in the room, officers found a parcel which was found to contain a one-kilo block of compressed cocaine.
The prosecutor said the parcel was addressed to Tucker’s house and a check of the tracking number on the package showed it had been sent special delivery from a Post Office in Merseyside the previous day. The court heard Tucker’s phone was seized but he refused to reveal the pin for it.
But officers were able to gain limited access to the device and found messages “indicative of involvement in the supply of drugs” along with a video dated August 23 showing the defendant opening a parcel similar to the one found on the wardrobe. The prosecutor said police had put the current value of a kilo of cocaine at up to £36,000. The defendant was interviewed the day after his arrest and answered “no comment” to all questions asked.
Nathan Tucker, of Gwyn Terrace, Port Talbot, had previously pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has previous convictions for 35 offences including burglary, robbery, possession of weapons, driving matters, and violence but none for drug-trafficking. At the time of the offending he was subject to a community order for assault by beating and criminal damage though the order had finished by the time the current offending came to court.
In mitigation, Hannah George, for Tucker, said it was accepted the defendant had an “unenviable” record of offending but said the majority of the offences were for acquisitive and motoring matters. She said in 2020 her client had experienced the death of a brother and lost his job as a crane driver at Tata Steel due to the covid pandemic.
She said he found himself sofa surfing with friends and taking cocaine. She said Tucker had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had self-medicated with cannabis and Valium to alleviate the symptoms and to deal with the anxiety caused by his partial deafness. The barrister said the defendant was concerned about the impact of a custodial sentence on his three children.
Judge Paul Thomas KC said Tucker had been found with a kilo of cocaine worth around £36,000 and there was evidence which suggested it was not the first such kilo he had handled. He said it was clear the defendant had been dealing cocaine on a “significant scale” and said those who dealt in class A drugs knew a substantial prison sentence awaited them if caught. Tucker was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison.
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