Drug dealer used his flat as cocaine and crack base after falling behind on the rent

A drug dealer who used his flat as 'a base for storing wholesale quantities of cocaine and crack cocaine' after falling behind on the rent has been jailed. Mark Draper, 34, was caught with nearly £100,000 of Class A drugs in his flat.

At a previous hearing in 2017, he fled from a court moments before he was due to be sentenced for drugs offences, but is now back behind bars.

The same court heard he turned his flat into a base for breaking down and repackaging cocaine and crack cocaine after suffering from rent arrears. He and his accomplice, Dylan Hyams, were linked to the operation after their fingerprints were found on blocks of illicit substances.

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Liverpool Crown Court heard Merseyside Police executed a search warrant at his flat on Belem Close in Aigburth on January 10 2022. No one was found inside after officers forced entry to the property, but they seized a quantity of cocaine worth up to £90,000 and £5,500 of crack cocaine from a Footasylum bag in the bedroom.

James Coutts, prosecuting, described how around £1,600 in cash was also recovered from the address, as was a "large empty package with remnants of white powder". This was said to have been "consistent with a kilogram deal being subdivided" into the three separate blocks of cocaine discovered within the apartment.

One of these, weighing half a kilo, was found with Hyams' DNA on it. Another quarter-kilogram parcel contained Draper's DNA.

Hyams, of no fixed address, has 19 previous convictions for 29 offences, including receiving 10 years in 2016 for robbery, reports The Echo.

The now 31-year-old was released from this