Drug dealer jailed for 10 years and three months
A DRUG dealer who imported a class A substance into the island in liquid form was jailed for 10 years and three months by the Royal Court yesterday.
Jordan Moore-Vieira, 22, admitted a total of seven offences.
In August, he was stopped by GBA officers when disembarking on a ferry from Portsmouth. It was noticed that the seal on a bottle of whisky he was carrying was broken. He said he had drunk some on the boat but the bottle was full. He could show no proof of purchase. He lunged at the bottle with considerable force before another officer managed to grab it. It was established later that he had bought the bottle on the outward trip.
Analysis showed the bottle contained MDMA, commonly known as Ecstasy. It could have produced between 249 grams and 254 grams in powder form that could have had a street value in Guernsey of between £19,920 and £25,400.
Moore-Vieira refused to give officers the pass code for his mobile phone.
On 4 September, a man was at the checkout at the Vale Avenue Iceland at about 8pm when the defendant entered the store and punched him with considerable force. The victim pushed him back and staff asked the defendant to leave. Moore-Vieira told police later that he knew the man and there were issues between them.
Later in September he failed to answer police bail in relation to the drug importation. When officers went to arrest him at a property in Mount Durand he clenched his fists and had to be taken to the floor. When being put in the van outside, cannabis resin, MDMA weighing 0.85 grams and a hand-rolled cannabis cigarette weighing 0.77g were found on him.
During a search of the property officers found a lump of cannabis resin wrapped in cling-film under a bath and £2,285 in cash. There was a mobile phone, electronic scales and a grinder.
The total weight of cannabis resin found was 125.8g.
Moore-Vieira initially denied selling drugs then admitted it, saying the cash came from the sale of a 100g bar of cannabis.
Again he refused to give the password for the mobile phone but experts who were able to bypass it found messages indicative of drug dealing. Moore-Vieira had numerous previous convictions for offences including drugs and violence and in January last year had been sentenced to six months in prison for burglary.
Advocate Liam Roffey said his client was realistic of the sentences that would be imposed. He began using alcohol aged 11 and was smoking cannabis by the time he was 13.
He was taking mephedrone and MDMA by the age of 16 when he was expelled from school. Support services who had helped him had not been able to make the breakthrough they hoped.
Bailiff Richard McMahon said the drug importation had been significant.
Some of these offences had been committed while on bail.
The defendant was put at a high risk of re-offending and a high risk to the public.
He had to consider totality when passing sentence.
Moore-Vieira was jailed for nine years and four months for the importation, eight months for the first offence of failing to give the pass code to his phone and three month for the assault, all consecutive.
Concurrent penalties were imposed for other matters.
Forfeiture and destruction of the drugs and two mobile phones was ordered and a drug trafficking investigation will take place.
