A man who served two years in prison for drug dealing returned to his dodgy trade after being released.
Craig Cavanagh, of William Street, Wallasey, left prison in January 2022 after serving part of a 30-month sentence for possession with intent to supply cocaine. He went on to become a significant player in supplying class A drugs to the Wallasey area, advertising heroin and cocaine to addicts and instructing street dealers to do his bidding.
Between June 3 and November 9 2023, Cavanagh, 34, sent 11,000 "flare" text messages advertising heroin and crack cocaine for sale. He was caught after police investigating the drug supply chain identified his phone number as being involved in the trade.
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At Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, December 8, prosecutor Christopher Hopkins said: "That line was operating in the Wallasey area and the police attributed that number to the defendant through a variety of different inquiries. On his arrest, a handset with that number was found in his home and when it was found it was ringing constantly and receiving messages. Investigations carried out on that phone found over 11,000 flare messages from the area around the defendant's home address.
"The operation worked by the defendant sending these messages advertising the drugs for sale, by word of mouth or local knowledge that drug users knew to go to a particular place to buy drugs."
Cavanagh, a dad of two, pleaded guilty to two counts of being involved in the supply of class A drugs.
Christopher McMaster, defending, said: "Cavanagh is a significant user of cocaine and this work that he took on he effectively used to fund that habit.
"He was a small cog in a very big machine and largely not making any significant amount of money, and was one of the people who, after struggling from his release from custody, struggling to find employment, fell back into doing the only viable work that was available to him."
Judge Jack McGarva said: "These are very serious matters. Drug dealing brings absolute misery to many people and you are among those people. This was a very significant role in drug dealing. It's clear you were involved by not only advertising drugs but by instructing street dealers. These matters are made more serious by that fact that you only in 2020 were convicted of similar offences."
He sentenced Cavanagh to four years and six months in prison.
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