Kertis Johnson, 41, was extradited back to the UK after years on the run. His drugs operation saw him supply more than 72kg of cocaine.
A dealer who was involved in supplying more than £2m worth of heroin and cocaine fled to Spain in a bid to avoid justice. But he was extradited back to the UK and sentenced to more than a decade behind bars.
Kertis Johnson, 41, used EncroChat in order to speak to an upstream dealer based in Merseyside, as well as a co-conspirator and a downstream courier. He flooded the streets of South Wales with kilograms of cocaine, which he purchased and sold on to dealers.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Monday heard the defendant was involved in supplying 72kg of cocaine, between October 2019 and June 2020. Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here.
Using the EncroChat handle BrownVelvet, Johnson was involved in the multi-kilo shipment of cocaine into South Wales.
Messages later discovered on his phone revealed the organised crime group used stash houses and cars with hidden compartments in order to conceal the drugs.
It was also revealed that Johnson was involved in supplying between 1kg and 2kg of heroin during the same period.
The messages showed the defendant had instructed couriers to deal drugs in and around Cardiff, including Ely and Dinas Powys.
There were also discussions between Johnson and his upstream supplier about a debt of £210,000 he owed.
On another occasion, he told the upstream supplier he and his co-conspirator had £201,000 and were hoping to raise the rest of the money from uncollected debt.
Following the arrest of his courier in August 2020, Johnson left the UK and fled to Spain.
The defendant was detained by police in Spain on July 29, 2024, and extradited back to the UK on August 14, 2024.
Prosecutor Robin Rouch said the value of the cocaine supplied by the defendant was in the region of £2,600,000, and the heroin supplied was worth between £17,000 and £34,000.
Johnson, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
The court heard he has 11 previous convictions, including an offence of conspiracy to supply cocaine for which he was sentenced to nine years imprisonment.
In mitigation, Simon Csoka KC said his client was a “local distributor” dealing several kilos at a time locally.
The barrister said this was not a “huge network”, and said the defendant has “considerable insight” into his offending and has “reached a turning point in his life”.
Sentencing, Judge Eugene Egan said: “You played a leading role in the conspiracy to supply cocaine… This was a relatively sophisticated case.”
Johnson was sentenced to a total of 14 years and eight months imprisonment.
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