Convicted drug dealer Lynne Leyson has been handed a nine-year jail sentence despite the courts having no idea of her whereabouts.

The 52-year-old masterminded a major Class A drugs operation where she supplied cocaine and cannabis in multi-kilo quantities throughout Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and parts of Swansea.

Leyson was previously found guilty by a jury of conspiracy to supply cocaine, conspiracy to supply cannabis and the possession of criminal property relating to £17,190 in cash and the matter was adjourned to sentencing to Friday, September 15.

But once again Judge Catherine Richards istting at Swansea Crown Court was told that Leyson had failed to attend the court hearing.

“This is a deliberate attempt to evade justice,” she said.

"I'm sure [Lynne Leyson] played a leading role as the dominant force in this conspiracy and [at trial] she presented as someone who controlled a number of people working for her."

The court heard how Lynne Leyson masterminded a gang from her property at Pibwr Farm near Capel Dewi in Carmarthenshire comprising her husband, Stephen, and her son, Samson. Both were jailed for a total of 17 years in July.

When police raided the farm in the early hours of October 27, 2021, they recovered cocaine worth just over £60,000, £15,615 of cannabis, over £17,000 in cash and a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.

The seized items were analysed, and the results implicated the Leyson family as well as DNA belonging to Andrew Jenkins and Ritchie Coleman.

 Officers returned to the farm on November 29 last year and arrested the Leysons and Jenkins.

They denied the offences, and Stephen and Lynne Leyson said the cash was from ‘a house sale'.

Stephen Leyson, 55, was jailed for 11 years for conspiracy to supply cocaine, and received concurrent sentences of seven years for possession of the firearm, four years for conspiracy to supply cannabis, and 12 months for possession of criminal property.

Samson Leyson, 24, was handed a six-year sentence for conspiracy to supply cocaine, and 18 months, running concurrently, for conspiracy to supply cannabis.

Jenkins, 51, of North Hill Road in Mount Pleasant, was jailed for nine months for conspiracy to supply cannabis.

33-year-old Coleman and 32-year-old Emma Calver-Roberts, both of Vetch Close, were also arrested in a raid on November 29.

They both admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis. Coleman was jailed for two years and four months. Calver-Roberts’ sentencing was adjourned for a pre-sentence report to be completed.

Lynne Leyson was sentenced to a total of nine years imprisonment which will be served upon her discovery and arrest.

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