THREE young class A drug dealers from West Cumbria have been given prison terms totalling more than 10 years.
Carlisle Crown Court heard today (FRI) how 20-year-olds Tommy Lee Whitehead and Jack Rumney plotted to supply cocaine in late August and early September last year having learned a main local dealer was taking an extended 12-week European break.
Before that Whitehead and Rumney, along with 21-year-old James Murray, had been involved in a less organised enterprise to distribute the class A drug to others. Police uncovered their illegal activity on September 6, finding the trio together in a car along with bagged-up cocaine deals and cash.
Mobile phone analysis uncovered many messages relating to illicit substance sale. They also revealed plans by Whitehead and Murray to smuggle hundreds of ecstasy tablets into the Creamfields music festival in Cheshire, one covert method being the use of a deflated air bed.
All three admitted being concerned in supplying cocaine between July 1 and September 6 last year.
Whitehead, of St Paul’s Avenue, Seaton, and Rumney, of Corporation Road, Workington, admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine, between August 27 and September 6. Whitehead and Murray, of Primrose Terrace, Harrington, Workington, each admitted being concerned in the supply of class A ecstasy between July and early September. In addition, Whitehead – a former Carlisle United youth player – admitted being concerned in supplying class B drug ketamine.
Whitehead was jailed for 45 months. Sellafield apprentice Rumney and Murray, a car dealership apprentice, both received 40-month jail terms.
Recorder Alex Leach heard powerful personal mitigation on behalf of the trio – all of previous good character. But he told them: “You were each of you involved in the supply of controlled drugs of class A to users on a regular basis, often several times a week.”
