Newport drug dealers ‘did not care about the pain caused’

Chris Lord, known as 'Lordy', 31, of George Lansbury Drive, Newport, and Kyle Rudge, 34, of Broadwood Close, Newport, were sentenced to years in prison on March 7 at Cardiff Crown Court. The court heard that Kyle Rudge was directing Chris Lord in their drugs operation, and that Rudge was caught by police when they were investigation another individual, not involved in this matter. They seized a mobile phone that had received messages from Rudge.

These messages included videos and pictures of masses of cannabis. When investigating Rudge's mobile phone they saw activity between himself and his co-defendant, who was saved under the nickname 'Lordy.' They raided Lord's address on October 24 and seized 19 grams of cannabis.

Chris Lord (Image: Gwent Police) Rudge was arrested on November 13 while driving his Seat Ibiza car on the M4 motorway. Police seized the two mobile phones found inside Rudge's vehicle and found incriminating evidence of the defendant being concerned in the supply of cannabis. On top of the pictures and videos of the drugs, Rudge was sending messages out on the different strains of cannabis he had on offer.

Lord's phone was also seized whereby there were messages dating back to 2022 that read, "got snow in", and him advertising various deal sizes. Messages between the two defendants acted as evidence that Rudge was directing Lord in the street-dealing of cannabis. Kyle Rudge (Image: Gwent Police) Acting in Lord's defence, Mr Seale said that he started drug dealing due to being in a stressful time of his life, and noted that he has shown genuine remorse.

Acting in Rudge's defence, Mr Williams said that Rudge is "entirely realistic" that he will be serving a custodial term, but is simply an "intelligent bloke who has made bad decisions." Both defence barristers told the court that the two defendants were supplying drugs that they themselves were addicted to. Upon sentencing, Recorder Andrew Hammond dealt with Lord for three offences: being concerned in the supply of class A controlled drugs - cocaine, conspiracy to supply class B controlled drugs - cannabis, and possession of a class B controlled drug - cannabis.

Rudge was facing a single charge of being concerned in the supply of class B controlled drugs - cannabis. Lord was sentenced to 32 months imprisonment, with credit for his early guilty plea and previous good character - Lord had Due to the images found on Rudge's phone of a significant amount of drugs, his comments on the quality and texture cannabis, and that he was playing a somewhat leading role in the operation, he was sentenced to a longer prison term of three years.

Recorder Hammond explained this was necessary due to his 11 previous convictions of 19 offences, which include drugs and theft, and because he was on licence at the time of offending. Both men will serve 40 percent of these terms before being released on licence. Detective Chief Inspector Matthew Edwards, of Gwent Police, said: "During the operation, we recovered messages that showed evidence of Rudge and Lord's involvement in the supply of drugs.

"We established that Rudge was directing those under him to deal drugs and pick up cash on his behalf. "Our investigation uncovered more than 100 pages of messages that showed Rudge's involvement in supplying cannabis. "We also identified that Lord was running a drugs line, advertising the sale of cocaine and cannabis in the Newport area.

"Drugs fill our communities with misery, suffering and fear and people like Rudge and Lord prey upon the vulnerable in our society.

"These two criminals were only interested in the profits of their activities and did not care about the pain they caused.

"Intelligence we receive from the public is paramount as we combat drug gangs in Gwent, allowing us to bring people like Rudge and Lord to justice."