A PROLIFIC Carlisle criminal whose 70 previous offences include multiple convictions for violence was a “wholesale” heroin supplier for local dealers.

Robert Smith, 38, who was caught after a wide-ranging police investigation, has been jailed for nine years after a court heard that he was twice caught with incriminating evidence, including almost £28,000 in suspicious cash.

The father-of-two admitted conspiring to supply the Class A drug and two counts of possessing criminal property - large sums of illicit cash. At Carlisle Crown Court, prosecutor Brendan Burke outlined the facts.

He said police began investigating the defendant in 2022.

This involved covert police surveillance of a property in rural north Cumbria where Smith was seen in October of that year. When officers later searched a hedgerow to the rear of the building they found a Tupperware box.

Inside it was bin bag and another box, containing two blocks of 57 per cent pure heroin, weighing just under 1kg. On December 29, said Mr Burke, police saw the defendant buying food blenders from Sainsburys and Argos in Carlisle.

“These were later discovered at Wheatsheaf Gardens in Wetheral, an address the defendant was using for the purposes of adulterating heroin,” said the barrister.

On January 13, police searched a VW Golf car which was insured in the name of a person who was linked to the defendant partner and had been driven by Smith. Under the front passenger seat officers found £26,850.

“The Crown say that this was a sophisticated way of distancing the proceeds of the conspiracy from the defendant: a fully taxed and insured vehicle that was nowhere near the defendant’s address.”News and Star: Robert Smith

On February 4, continued Mr Burke, police saw Smith enter the Wheatsheaf Gardens property with the blender he had bought. Police arrested him and searched the property, finding heroin residue on the blender.

Hidden in the rear garden they found a block of heroin weighing just under half a kilo. It was 38 per cent pure and capable, after being blended with mixing agents, of producing over two kilos of heroin for onward dealing.

Police also recovered £1,000.

Mr Burke said there was no evidence Smith was a street dealer. Police believe his role was as a “regional wholesaler” of heroin, which involved him ensuring the high purity heroin was adulterated before being sold to dealers.

Outlining the defendant’s criminal history, Mr Burke said the record includes thefts, possessing offensive weapons, multiple actual bodily harm assaults, causing grievous bodily harm, and a previous drugs conspiracy conviction.

This earned him an eight year jail term.

His defence barrister accepted that Smith, of Garden Street, Carlisle, was involved in adulterating drugs before their resale. A father of two, Smith had missed the birth of his second child because he was in custody.

Judge Michael Fanning observed that Smith had been committing offences for the last 25 years. He had been buying heroin from a national supplier during the four months of the conspiracy.

“You were then selling that on, having adulterated it,” said the judge.

He noted that Smith had refused to give police the PIN number for his phone. “You were a wholesale local level supply retailer,” said the judge, adding that Smith must have expected significant financial benefit.

It was suspected that he may have been involved in the processing and supply of up to 9 kilos of the drug. After jailing Smith, Judge Fanning said a hearing in June next year will determine how much profit the defendant derived from his drugs crime and how much cash is available for the court to claw back.