Overview
- Esten Bennett, 32, admitted being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and was jailed for five years and eight months at Shrewsbury Crown Court.
- He set up a phone drugs line, a single mobile number used to mass-text buyers and take orders, the day he was freed on a home detention curfew.
- West Mercia Police tied him to the line through a top-up at a Stafford shop captured on CCTV and then arrested him at Hadley Park Services.
- Officers found a wrap of crack, £170 in cash, and the line’s phone, and investigators say the line sent about 5,000 texts and sold an estimated 200 grams across Telford and into Wales.
- Judge Anthony Lowe ordered the phone and drugs destroyed and the cash seized, as police pledged to keep disrupting local drug networks.