An East Belfast man who was running a Class A drugs 'small business’ was jailed for ten months on Friday.
Samuel McDade, 20, of Altcar Court, had previously pleaded guilty at Belfast Crown Court to three counts of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs, namely cocaine, Ecstasy tablets and LSD.
The court heard police went to McDaid’s home to conduct a search for an unrelated matter on June 15, 2022. Two mobile phones were seized from McDade’s bedroom and later underwent forensic examination by PSNI specialists.
The prosecution stated that one of the phones showed evidence of “significant drug supply” which prompted an examination of the second phone. It was the prosecution case that both phones were “replete with messages for the supply of drugs”.
On one of the phones, McDade made agreements on 15 occasions to supply Class A drugs and was contacted seven times by customers looking for drugs.
“He was advertising pure cocaine, street cocaine, LSD and Ecstasy tablets for sale on several WhatsApp groups,” the prosecution outlined to the court.
“His name on these WhatsApp groups was ‘The Real Arctic’. There were a number of videos created by the defendant in these groups. One message from the defendant stated: ‘I have been to all your group chats...here is my menu, The Real Artic menu’.”
A text message found on one phone sent to the defendant stated: ‘I’m an old mate from Enniskillen looking for 100,000 pills for £60,000 cash he is offering if you can sort those kind of numbers.’
The second phone showed 75 messages when he was contacted by others to supply them with drugs. On 20 occasions McDade referred to a person working for him as a “driver” who was delivering the drugs for ‘The Real Arctic’.
He further sent two messages to a person saying: “Do you want a job all weekend mate? Good money. Starting in the morning at about 12.”
On one occasion the defendant arranged for drugs to be delivered to Magherafelt in Co Derry. Another message stated that 1,000 Ecstasy tablets would cost £2,000 and £3,800 for 2,000 tablets. When interviewed by police denied involvement in the drugs trade.
The court heard McDade had 64 previous convictions with nine entries for drug offences. In September 2021 he received a four month prison sentence for supplying cocaine.
Said Judge Mark Reel: “I do not accept there is any delay in this case. The defendant was interviewed in March 2023 and he could have admitted his involvement. Instead, he chose to brazen it out, necessitating a telephone report which was received in March 2024. Telephone traffic was voluminous.”
In a pre-sentence report, McDade told a probation officer the more drugs he took the more he got into debt and he ended up “owing criminal elements”.
Judge Reel said: “This court assesses this defendant as running a small business and employing a delivery driver. He advertised his product. He purchased in bulk and supplied in small quantity to end users but on occasions was prepared to supply larger quantities for resale.”
He told McDade: “You are a drug dealer who engaged in this activity for profit. You ran a substantial small business.”
McDade will spend a further ten months on supervised licence following his release from prison.
English (United States) ·