A DRUG dealer who ran a crooked “cottage industry” from his Kendal home has been jailed for 28 months.
Carlisle Crown Court heard how Luke Benjamin Harris sold standard illicit substances and more “esoteric” drugs during a seven-month period around the turn of 2017.
Police uncovered 27-year-old Harris’s criminal activity when they visited his home on December 14 that year. They recovered a “substantial quantity” of drugs valued at £1,660, along with £310 cash, and also found a ventilation system and equipment more commonly found in a chemistry lab.
Analysis of WhatsApp chat on Harris’s mobile phone revealed he had been “actively involved” in dealing a range of class A and B substances and, Judge James Adkin observed, had also given advice to others of how to make designer drugs.
Harris, of Garth Bank, Kendal, admitted seven charges – supplying class A drugs methadone and LSD, and class B ketamine; possession with intent to supply of class B cannabis, ketamine and class A hallucinogenic substance DMT; and possession of class A mescaline.
Judge Adkin heard of Harris’s struggle with health difficulties, an active dependence on a multiplicity of drugs, and that he was deemed a “low risk” of reoffending.
But he concluded that only an immediate prison term could be justified.
“You were essentially running a cottage industry, selling both standard illegal drugs and more esoteric drugs,” Judge Adkin observed. “You also were running a small laboratory for experimenting and creating your own drugs.”
Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Constable Tom Pearman, of the South Lakes Intelligence Unit, stated: “This man was selling dangerous designer psychoactive drugs to young people in the Kendal area.
“His imprisonment sends the continued message that so called ‘party drugs’ of this type are illegal, carry serious health implications and if you are arrested for selling them you will go to prison.”
