A young cocaine dealer was brazenly operating in a popular park near a crown court. Enad Abar was part of a gang peddling the Class A drug to users in the middle of the afternoon unaware they were being watching by police officers who were waiting to arrest them. The defendant's barrister told Swansea Crown Court that few people would have experienced a much harder childhood than his client who spent three years living alone in a refugee camp from the age of 12.
Abar was part of a gang of dealers who were seen operating in Swansea's Victoria Park on March 28 last year. Police patrolling the area saw a man approach a group of young men sat on a bench in the park and an "exchange" taking place. The officers believed they had just witnessed a drug deal and called for backup. While the officers waited for support to arrive they saw four more exchanges taking place. When police had sufficient numbers in the park they were able to "sweep in" and arrest the group including the defendant. A number of wraps of cocaine and cannabis were recovered along with mobile phones. Messages subsequently found on Abar's phone showed his involvement in the supply of cocaine over the preceding weeks. Other members of the park group have already been jailed for dealing. Abar, aged 21, of Gomer Gardens, Townhill, Swansea, denied being concerned in the supply of cocaine but was convicted at a three-day trial at Swansea Crown Court in December last year.
Ian Ibrahim, for Abar, said there could be "few people who have had a much harder start in life" than the defendant. He said Abar grew up in Yemen during the country's civil war before he and his father fled to Turkey and then Greece. The barrister said his client was left in a refugee camp in Greece by his father at the age of 12 and spent the next three years alone there without any support or family while trying to learn the language. The barrister said meanwhile Abar's father had made his way to the UK and worked in a variety of jobs including butchery and at a car wash until he had the money to pay for Abar along with his other children and his to join him. Mr Ibrahim said the childhood experiences of the defendant would never leave him and he said it was likely they had left him suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Abar was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
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