Twelve-year sentence for drug dealer after guilty plea

A drug dealer has pleaded guilty to five charges he was facing after seeing the strength of the case against him.

Anthony Watson, 31, of High Street, Walton-on-the-Naze, was arrested in Clacton in December 2022 in connection with a long-running drug supply investigation in Essex.

He was found in possession of Class A and Class B drugs, as well as an iPhone and a burner phone.

Watson had been identified as being in regular contact with another man, Liam Phelan, who was charged at the time with multiple drugs and firearms offences and was later sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment in May 2023.

Watson had also been connected to the seizure of a large quantity of drugs recovered during the arrest of Phelan in May 2022.

Phelan was one of five men in a large-scale drugs supply network which had also been moving viable firearms.

He was described by the judge sentencing him as a ‘professional criminal’ who ‘revelled in the money he made’ bringing violence and harm to the streets of Essex.

Watson had been acting as a go-between on behalf of this network; collecting wholesale quantities of Class A drugs and holding them until they were collected.

He denied being a willing participant but was charged and remanded by police and later bailed from court with conditions.

Then, in March 2024, Watson was stopped by officers while driving a car with a large quantity of cannabis inside.

He was arrested and his house was searched – with a number of weapons including a cattle prod discovered and a large volume of Class A drugs discovered.

Videos and messages retrieved from a phone seized at the address further showed the extent of the drug dealing operation Watson was now orchestrating.

Watson was charged with being concerned in the supply of cocaine, possession with intent to supply a Class A drug, being concerned in the supply of a Class B drug, and possession of a Class A and a Class B drug.

He initially pleaded guilty to the possession charges but either pleaded guilty or entered no plea to the other three counts.

However, with the trial approaching and the strength of the case clear, he eventually pleaded guilty to all charged and was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Wednesday 28 August.

Detective Inspector Frazer Low, of our Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said:

“Watson clearly thought he could lie his way out of a lengthy sentence when we first arrested him.
“The case we had built up against him was overwhelming which he realised when he saw the volume of evidence he would face in court.
“We had already dismantled a large organised crime group when dealing with Phelan and others, so when Watson tried to fill this void we were ready.
“We’ve taken a large quantity of drugs off the streets, and prevented much more ever reaching Essex in the first place.”

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