Essex cocaine dealer and his 'delivery boy' are sentenced

Jarrod Agius, 29, was jailed for three years at Basildon Crown Court on Monday, May 19, where a judge heard he had run a Class A drugs line from his home in Wickford.

Police raided the property in Bridge Road last October, finding drugs paraphernalia, two machetes and an extendable police baton.

But, said prosecutor James Lachkovic: “When the officers gained entry to the premises, the toilet had recently been flushed.”

They found two iPhones – his personal phone and another believed to have been used in the drug operation. The sim card from the latter was missing.

At the same time, police were raiding the home of 36-year-old Ricky Bishop, in Benfleet High Road, described as Agius’s “delivery boy”, ferrying drugs to customers.

“In summary, Mr Agius was running the drugs line,” said Mr Lachkovic. “It’s accepted and evidence that he had an operational management function within the chain.”

The operation was known as “the AJ line”. Block texts were sent to customers and as orders came in, “Agius would engage with Mr Bishop and another to go out and deliver the drugs on his behalf.”

The court heard Bishop’s personal phone was filled with “incriminating messages” showing him receiving and following instructions from Agius.

Agius had tried to conceal his activities, never taking his personal phone to deliver drugs.

Whenever the drugs line was on the move, his personal phone would suddenly be static at home – and vice versa.

But both phones were often active at his home at the same time, and police were able to match the drugs line’s movements to those of Agius’s car.

“The pattern of usage of both those phones is conclusive of Mr Agius’s involvement in that drugs line,” the prosecutor said.

Both men pleaded guilty in November to being concerned in the supply of cocaine. Agius also admitted possessing criminal property – namely, £3,000 cash.

When Bishop’s home was searched, police found a quantity of empty cocaine wraps. He at first claimed he had only delivered drugs on two occasions but later admitted far greater involvement.

The father-of-four’s barrister Brereton Horne said his client – who had no prior convictions or cautions – began dealing while experiencing personal difficulties.

“He himself was taking drugs,” the barrister said – but he was now “off the drugs completely” and “really trying to get his life together”.

“It is a case where Mr Bishop throws himself on the mercy of the court,” he said. “He begs for some leniency.”

Being out on bail had enabled him to keep his job “with the transportation authorities as a customer services advisor”, the lawyer added, but if he was imprisoned his mother would become homeless without his income to pay the rent.

Judge Siew Loke sentenced Bishop to 24 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, but said Agius’s case was more serious.

He was higher up the chain, was caught with serious weapons and had already been convicted in 2014 of dealing cocaine and heroin, receiving a suspended sentence.

He was then jailed for three years in 2018 for conspiracy to rob and threatening somebody with a bladed article.

His barrister Tobias Smith said Agius, who had a four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter, had grown up amid “substantial domestic violence” and was now in therapy.

His efforts to go straight after his release from prison fell apart when he got into “significant debt” and his seasonal gardening work made it “difficult to provide for his family”.

But he said Agius was now “a model prisoner”, providing “pastoral support” to fellow inmates and serving as the prison’s diversity representative.

“He is doing everything that he can and has been taking active steps to ensure that when he is released, he is not going to go back again,” said Mr Smith.

“He is not going to pollute our streets with drugs. He is going to be a good father to his children.”

Judge Loke sentenced Agius to three years in prison. He will serve half inside, minus the six months he has already spent on remand.