POLICE discovered stun guns disguised as a torch and a mobile phone when they raided a drug dealer’s house.
Taser torches, some illegally imported from China, were also found in Damien Lloyd’s bedroom.
After Lloyd was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison the police officer involved in the investigation, PC Anthony Butlin, said: “Mold is a safer place now.”
Judge Peter Heywood told Mold Crown Court: “It is always of concern to the courts when someone involved in supplying drugs is found to be in possession of weapons.”
During the raid police seized cocaine worth nearly £24,000 from Lloyd’s rented home in Glan Alyn, Mold.
Drug user Lloyd, 39, pleaded guilty at an earlier court appearance to 15 offences, six of them involving the possession with intent to supply of class A, B and C drugs ranging from cocaine to testosterone.
Merion Lewis-Jones, prosecuting, said all the remaining charges related to possession of weapons classed as firearms. From January 2008 Lloyd had been disqualified for life from having a firearm.
One weapon was described as a “self-defensive flashlight”, believed to have been bought over the internet, which had fake mobile phone type buttons that gave off an electric shock.
Two other charges related to weapons described as combined torch and stun gun. Another was a taser wand and another a stun gun again appearing to be a torch.
Lloyd was also found to have a handgun and two air rifles, all capable of firing ball bearings, and all of which were loaded.
When police served a search warrant at Lloyd’s home they found the bedroom littered with prescription drugs, other drugs and “bits of weapons”.
“He made frank admissions about his regular drug use and to purchasing goods on the internet.
“A number of mobile phones were seized and interrogated by experts.
Various messages informed other people he was selling drugs and clearly he was arranging for drugs to be sent to his home address. He boasted he was earning up to £1,000 a week selling drugs.
Some text messages showed he was selling “champagne”, “cola”, and “shark” – all street names for drugs.
Apart from 595 grammes of cocaine, police also found nearly a kilogramme of benzococaine which could be used to dilute the cocaine and increase its value.
In interview Lloyd said he was looking after some cocaine to help pay for a drug debt. He said he kept the weapons because he had an interest in them, but did not take them out of the house. He also possessed a number of imitation firearms.
Judge Haywood said he accepted Lloyd had not used the weapons in pursuit of his “trade”. Among the drugs found by police was diazepam. Lloyd said his GP would
not prescribe it for him so he bought 1,000 tablets for £100.
Duncan Bould, defending, said a psychiatric report described Lloyd as a vulnerable person. “He says he is a collector and there is evidence for that - some of these weapons were still in their boxes. He had ordered them over the internet using his real name and his address.
“In North Wales it would be unique to come across a witness claiming to have been assaulted by a stun gun or taser in relation to drug supplying.”
Judge Haywood sentenced Lloyd to the minimum term of five years for the firearms offences and two-and-a-half years for the drug offences, to run consecutively.
He also ordered the confiscation of £1,500 found in Lloyd’s home and the destruction of the goods seized. PC Butlin said after the case: “I am very pleased with the sentence. It was a protracted inquiry which involved a lot of investigation. No stone was left unturned."