Wellingborough teen dealer who ran £500,000 countrywide drug conspiracy handed lengthy jail term

A Wellingborough drug dealer who ran two large home delivery drugs operations from burner phones has been sent to jail for nine years.

Richiro Riviere-Frederick, now 20, concurrently ran the two lines, sending 'sophisticated' marketing messages out to addicts across Northamptonshire, Birmingham, Bournemouth and Milton Keynes to help pedal his heroin and crack cocaine.

He recruited four pals into his empire - 20-year-olds Jack Morrisey, Mitosz Musielewski, and Louis Jones along with drug addict Ricki Clarke, 31, who were all sentenced in December.

The defendant, formerly of Parkins Close, Wellingborough, but now of HMP Bedford, was on a suspended sentence for a previous drug dealing conviction when his two lines were in 'full swing'.

Northampton Crown Court heard this morning (Friday, January 29) that the 20-year-old ran the lines for nine months between April 30, 2019, and January 31, 2020, under the names Pablo and Josh sending out bulk marketing messages including one that read: "I'm back. Big sizes. Best of Both. Deliveries. #Pablo".

He would regularly replace the SIM cards to escape capture, and ran special offers

But police caught up with the group in January 2020 when they pulled over a hire car in Greenfield Road, Spinney Hill. It was being driven by Ricki Clarke, of Sywell Road, Overstone. Musielewski, of Doddington Road, Wellingborough, was in the passenger seat.

They discovered 30 wraps of heroin, 159 wraps of crack cocaine hidden in McDonald's packaging, worth a total of £2,250. Cash and mobile phones were also discovered.

Then two weeks later they stopped a second car, a Mercedes, driving by Riviere-Frederick. Morrisey and Jones, both formerly of Wellingborough but now of HMP Peterborough, were in the back.

Prosecuting barrister Adam Pearson said: "Mobile phones were recovered including personal mobiles but also SIMS for the Pablo line."

Morrisey was searched and found to have 34 wraps of heroin and 35 wraps of cocaine, worth a total of £1,140. Messages later downloaded from SIM cards in the car showed marketing messages sent to 37 customers.

The phones received incoming messages from about 17 contacts each day from across the whole of Northamptonshire, Milton Keynes, Bournemouth and Birmingham.

Mr Pearson added: "They were operated and controlled by Mr Riviere-Frederick and showed close correlation between personal mobile phones and telephones being used by the Pablo and Josh lines.

"Mr Riviere-Frederick was clearly playing the leading role. He was organising buying and selling on a commercial scale."

He was charged with two counts of conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and one count of possession of criminal property. He also admitted being in breach of a suspended sentence.

The court was told how he had previously been caught dealing drugs in May 2018 and was given a two-year suspended jail term when the offences came to court in August 2019. At the time he was sentenced, he was - unbeknown to the authorities - running the Pablo and Josh lines.

Mr Pearson said: "It's plain that this conspiracy was in full swing at that time."

Mitigating for Riviere-Frederick, barrister Liam Muir said: "He hasn't been found with a vast amount of wealth and with bundles of money, Rolexes and expensive clothes.

"It's my submission that.. he's not the owner who started the line. He was between 18 and 19 at the time and.. he's been put in charge of it but he's not the true leader."

His Honour Judge Rupert Mayo said that he believed the conspiracy to be worth about £500,000, with between 2kg and 10kg of drugs changing hands, adding: "Within these two drug lines your role was a leading one. Marketing messages of some sophistication were sent out on a regular basis.

"You recruited others along with Ricki Clarke, a former customer and addict. You treated these them with utter disdain. You made no secret of the fact this business was yours."

He reduced the sentence to account for the defendant's guilty plea, and ordered him to serve one year of his breached suspended sentence.

He was handed a prison term of nine years and two months and will serve half before being released on licence.

In December, Morrisey was given a jail term of six years, eight months. Louis Jones received four years and four months.

Clark was handed a four year and eight month jail term and Musielewski was given a 20-month suspended jail term to reflect his lesser role in the conspiracy.

Judge Mayo will hold a hearing at a later date to deal with the potential imposition of a Serious Crime Prevention Order - which allows restrictions to be placed on serious offenders post-release - and proceeds of crime act proceedings which could allow the court to seize assets shown to be accrued using the proceeds of crime.