Stephen Lima, Perry Hill and Nicholas Stephenson were all caught with hard drugs in Cardiff.

Stephen Lima, Perry Hill and Nicholas Stephenson were all caught with hard drugs in Cardiff.Today they are behind bars serving a total of six years for their crimes.
Drugs squad officers say that at 17 years old, they highlight a trend for city drug kingpins to rope in naive, greedy youngsters to peddle heroin and crack cocaine.
At their age, they could normally hope to hide behind a law which forbids newspapers identifying 17-year-olds.But the courts gave the Echo permission to print the trio’s names and photographs in a bid to protect the public from Class A drug dealing in South Wales.Officers hope the move and today’s publicity will deter other youths from being tempted into risking their futures and cashing in on the evil trade.
Sentencing Hill and Stephenson at Cardiff Crown Court, Judge John Curran ignored pleas from defence barristers to allow them to remain anonymous.After an application by the Echo to name them, Judge Curran said: “These are grave and very serious offences.
“Parents or people living in Cardiff have a right to know who is dealing drugs on their streets. There is a genuine public interest in this.”Earlier, Judge Philip Richards allowed this paper’s request not to impose an order banning identification of Lima.The judge said: “In view of the public interest in this matter and in view of your age, I don’t consider that this is a case where I should make an order.”Officers working on Cardiff’s crime crackdown Operation Maximum Impact have arrested three more teenage drug dealers aged from 16 to 19 during operations in Ely over recent weeks.Lead drugs squad officer Detective Sergeant Dave Bancroft told the Echo it was a worrying problem.
He said: “We are seeing more young men selling drugs – young men aged 16 or 17 years old.

“They are naive and for a little bit of money they will do the dirty work.

“At that age, all they see is money. They don’t realise the risks in what they are doing.

“They are not stupid enough to use the drugs themselves but they are stupid enough to take the risks – and it is not worth it.”

At his sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court, Lima’s barrister admitted it was money that drove the young defendant.

Jane Rowley QC said: “Experienced drug traffickers are utilising the services of naive young persons such as Stephen with a ‘get rich quick’ philosophy.”

Det Sgt Bancroft said crack cocaine and heroin had been a problem in parts of Cardiff for several years and that officers were continually engaged in a battle to disrupt the dealers.As part of Operation Maximum Impact, officers in plain clothes have been sent out to try to drive the lowest level of peddlers off the streets.
Five warrants have been carried out in Ely and Canton and several more in Rumney and St Mellons resulting in seizures of heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis.Some 14 people were arrested in Ely and at least two in Rumney and St Mellons. More arrests are expected in coming weeks.Det Sgt Bancroft said: “I know we have had an impact as we have had feedback from not just the public but the criminals.“No-one wants to do the street-level dealing at the moment. That’s one of the big things that this operation has been doing – scaring people into refusing to do the bigger drug dealers’ dirty work.”