(posted 7603 days ago)South London Press
NewsArmed crack-cocaine dealers jailed for 18 years
Jul 11 2003A POLICE raid on a ground-floor flat in Thornton Heath revealed a well-organised crack-cocaine factory and a loaded handgun, a court heard.
At Croydon Crown Court last week, Paul Richards, 36, and Charles Cornwall, 34, were jailed for 18 years each.
Members of the Territorial Support Group swooped on the flat in Mersham Road on October 24 and found cooking equipment for turning cocaine into the more deadly crack version, said prosecutor Christopher Faulks.
Some £200,000 worth of drugs were found, including heroin in sufficient quantities for supply purposes.
In a Tesco carrier bag was a handgun with a round of ammunition in the barrel and four rounds in the magazine. There was more ammunition in the bag.
Mr Faulks said: "When the gun was analysed, it was found to be a blank firing pistol, which had been modified to fire real bullets." In the main bedroom was £6,000 in cash.
Cornwall, of Towling Street, Camberwell, denied he had been staying at Mersham Road and claimed he had only been invited to the flat.
Richards, of Kennington Lane, Kennington, said he went to the flat to sell a car to someone, but had been there on a few occasions previously to buy small amounts of crack and heroin for his own use.
The judge ordered Jamaican-born Cornwall to be deported.
The pair were found guilty of producing crack, possession of class A drugs with intent to supply, and unlawfully having a handgun and ammunition. They had denied all charges.