A judge said all three defendants seemed committed to a gang and drug-dealing lifestyle
(Left to right) Saeed Afshar, Gary Akister, and Tyrese Douglas
A London gang took over a house in Swansea to use as an operational base, a court has heard. When police responded to calls for help from the person living in the property they found the organised crime group were dealing heroin, cocaine and cannabis.
Swansea Crown Court heard Londoners Saeed Afshar, Gary Akister, and Tyrese Douglas all have previous convictions for trafficking Class A drugs, and sending them back to prison a judge at Swansea Crown Court said all three defendants seemed committed to a gang and drug-dealing lifestyle.
Alycia Carpanini, prosecuting, told the court that in January this year police in Swansea received a call from a know drug-user living in the Waun Wen area of the city saying there were three men staying at her address who were refusing to leave.
Officers went to the house and found the defendant Douglas along with quantities of heroin, cocaine and cannabis, mobile phones, and car keys.
Officers spoke to Douglas and he gave a false name and date of birth. He claimed to have come to Swansea to see the occupant of the house, though he was not able to name her.
Enquiries led police to Llangyfelach Road where they found the co-defendants Afshar and Akister. Officers recovered phones, £350 in cash, and multiple sets of keys from the men.
The Londoners were arrested and gave officers false names. For the latest court reports sign up to our crime newsletter
The court heard the subsequent police investigation showed the three men were involved in a county lines drugs operation being run by an organised crime group and that they had travelled to Swansea from London in a hire car on January 9.
The prosecutor said the group had taken over the property – the home of a vulnerable woman – in a technique known as “cuckooing”.
She said messages, videos, and Snapchat conversations recovered from the seized phones showed the trio’s involvement in dealing, and that during one Snapchat conversation Akister discussed his intentions of moving to Swansea saying “You can cut through in that city”.
A video found on Afshar’s phone showed people in a room apparently taking drugs with the caption “Welcome to Swansea”.
Saeed Afshar, aged 31, of North Street, Barking, London, Gary Akister, aged 26, of Marlborough Road, Archway, London, and 25-year-old Tyrese Douglas, of Haywood Street, Southwark, London, had all previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, heroin and cannabis when they returned to the dock for sentencing. Read about a child sex offender who swam across the Loughor River to escape from members of a paedophile hunter group who were chasing him
Afshar has eight previous convictions for 20 offences including multiple convictions for dealing cannabis, crack, heroin and cocaine. His last drugs conviction was in October 2024 when he was sentenced to 90 months in prison at Woodgreen Crown Court for conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin and possession of a prohibited weapon.
Akister has 22 previous convictions for 40 offences including multiple convictions for dealing heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine. Following his arrest in Swansea he was recalled to prison to serve the remainder of a 68-month sentence imposed in 2022 at Guildford Crown Court for conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine. He is not due to be released from that sentence until 2028.
Douglas has 13 previous convictions for 30 offences including firearms matters, possession of an offensive weapon, and sexual offences. In 2022 he was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in Bristol at Bristol Crown Court for being concerned in the supply of heroin and crack and a modern slavery offence, and following his arrest in Swansea was recalled back to prison to serve the remainder of the sentence.
Matt Murphy, for Afshar, said having spent 40 months on remand ahead of his October 2024 sentencing his client was effectively released with £40 in his pocket, little support, and on conditions that he could not return to his mother’s house.
He said the defendant’s impending fatherhood “should cause him to reprioritise” his life, and said Afshar knows he has to break his cycle of reoffending.
Scott Bowen, for Akister, said his client had experienced an “exceptionally difficult” upbringing, and said he had known no other life than being involved with the courts.
Andrew Evans, for Douglas, said his client had been spending his time on remand in HMP Swansea constructively by undertaking a number of courses including basic Welsh.
Judge Geraint Walters said the facts of the case were all too familiar to Swansea Crown Court, namely that of defendants involved in an organised criminal group who had been sent to the city to deal drugs.
He said dealers perpetuate the misery of users and shatter not just individual lives but also communities were dealing takes place.
The judge said all three defendants seemed committed to a gang and drug-dealing lifestyle, and he said while the courts could not stop them if that was their intent they could remove them from society.
With 20 per cent discounts for their guilty pleas Afshar and Akister were each sentenced to eight years in prison while Douglas was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison.