An organised crime group used a car parked at a popular tourist attraction as a mobile storage unit to keep a huge haul of drugs and thousands of pounds in cash, a court has heard.
As visitors enjoyed a trip to the famous Devil's Bridge near Aberystwyth, they could have had little reason to suspect that the anonymous-looking VW Passat in the car park contained 80 ready-to-sell wraps of cocaine and £16,000 in cash.
Operation Haxted
The man who was running the Welsh drugs operation from his home in the West Midlands has been jailed along with two "runners" he employed to carry out the street dealing for him.
Swansea Crown Court heard that in the summer of 2026 police in Aberystwyth began to investigate a drug supply network operating in the seaside town and launched Operation Haxted to try to dismantle it.
Sian Cutter, prosecuting, told the court that extensive covert surveillance identified Florin Ghiorghe and Mirjol Bresa acting as so-called "runners" carrying out street deals, using hire cars to travel to locations around the town where they would meet customers. The officers also kept watch on Ghiorghe and Bresa as they made frequent trips out of town to nearby Devil's Bridge where they were seen stopping at a silver Volkswagen parked in the car park.
How the operation worked
The prosecutor said the investigation identified Shaqir Tota as the person running the drug supply phone line from Dudley in the West Midlands. She said it emerged that customers were placing orders with Tota who would then text Ghiorghe or Bresa with the time and place of the deal before sending the customer a Google Maps pin-dropped location for the exchange.
Ghiorghe or Bresa would then drive to the designated location in a car, with the actual deal taking place in the vehicle rather than out on the street.
The court heard that on August 27 officers swooped on the three defendants - Tota and Bresa were arrested by West Mercia Police while travelling northbound on the M5 heading towards Birmingham, while Ghiorghe was arrested in Aberystwyth. A number of properties linked to the defendants were then searched, and mobile phones seized.
Stash car and sentencing
The court heard that when officers searched the VW Passat parked at Devil's Bridge they found it was being used as a "stash car" and it contained 80 individual half-gram packets of cocaine along with £16,000 in cash. Officers also found a vacuum seal machine and rolls of vacuum seal bags in the boot.
An examination of the seized phones turned up thousands of text messages related to the drugs operation including messages from Tota to his co-defendants detailing drop-offs, and bulk advertising text messages sent to drug users. One of the adverts read: "I am active in Aberystwyth every day with the best stuff from 6am until 1am with fast delivery and pure… if you share my number to your friends anyone who calls from you will get half for free. Have a good weekend".
Shaqir Tota, aged 24, of Dingle Road, Dudley; Mirjol Bresa, aged 21, of Bromford Road, Birmingham; and Florin Ghiorghe, 28, of Buzzard Way, Cefn Hengoed, Caerphilly County, had previously pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine when they returned to the dock for sentencing. None has any previous convictions.
Graeme Wilson, for Tota, said his client was an Albanian national, and he asked the court to take his age and his previous good character into account. He said the defendant had been diagnosed with hepatitis while on remand but had not received treatment for the condition "because the prison service apparently wanted to see if he was going to be deported or not".
Ryan Bowen, for Ghiorghe, told the court his client was a Romanian national who entered the UK illegally in May this year seeking work and to support his two young children. He said the defendant's "desperation for money" led to the "foolish decision to enter the dark world of Class A drugs", and said Ghiorghe now regrets that decision and simply wants to return home.
Ieuan Rees, for Bresa, said his client had entered the UK illegally and initially worked as a cleaner but then found himself "obliged" to work in the drug operation in order to pay off the debts he owed. He said the defendant's status in the UK was unclear as, while the Home Office had initially made contact with him following his arrest, there had been no contact since, and he said if he is allowed to remain in the UK his client wants to return to the Birmingham area where he has family.
Judge Catherine Richards said it was clear Tota had been running a profitable drug supply operation, and said while the co-defendants had been acting under direction they had a clear understanding of the scale of what was going on.
With discounts for their guilty pleas Tota was sentenced to 32 months in prison, and Ghiorghe and Bresa to 22 months each. The defendants will serve up to half their sentences in custody, and if they are not deported at that point they will be released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
Speaking after the sentencing, Dyfed-Powys Police detective sergeant Steve Jones thanked the public for their help in taking down the drugs operation. He said: "Operation Haxted was a complex investigation targeting a well-established organised crime group responsible for supplying class A drugs in Aberystwyth."
"Despite their best attempts to avoid being caught - using hire vehicles, meeting in discreet rural locations and keeping the drugs in a separate, unoccupied vehicle – our dedicated team diligently followed their tracks, seized the drugs, cash, and put the three criminals before the courts."
"I'd like to thank residents for proactively reporting suspicious activity to us, which ultimately led to Op Haxted being stood up. This operation highlights the importance of the public reporting concerns to us, and our responsibility to act on those reports."
"I'd also like to thank colleagues at West Mercia Police for their assistance throughout this operation that has seen three serious criminals held to account for their actions. The dismantling of this group is a significant result not just for us as police, but for the wider Aberystwyth community who deserve to live in an area free of drugs and its associated criminality."
