Drug dealer's online ad – with mobile number

AN ECSTACY dealer caught in a police sting after advertising drugs online, complete with his phone number, has been sent to youth custody.

Benito Graffagnino, 19, proved an easy collar for Avon and Somerset police when he agreed to meet up with undercover officers and sold them class A drugs, Bristol Crown Court heard.

Police first became aware of him when they saw him carry out a street deal in the city centre in April, the court was told.

On his arrest he was found to have ecstasy and a class B drug.

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In May, officers became aware that Graffagnino was using the internet to deal drugs and was brazenly advertising class A narcotics for sale, namely MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, providing his mobile number for buyers to contact him.

Undercover officers set up a sting and filmed themselves buying class A drugs from him on three occasions before he was arrested and charged.

In interview, he was confronted with the video evidence and at court admitted three counts of possessing drugs with intent to supply on April 21, supplying ecstasy on May 29, May 31 and June 7, and offering to supply ecstasy between May and June.

Graffagnino, of King Square, Bristol, also admitted breaching a 12-month community and supervision order imposed last July for criminal damage when he used a metal pole to smash up the back windscreen and body work of a car belonging to the manager of a hostel he used to live at. Sentencing him to three years and three months in youth custody, Judge David Ticehurst told him: "You are a very foolish young man, aren't you?

"The idea that you could sell drugs in that way was ridiculous, you were bound to be caught. Selling drugs on the internet is bound to lead to detection, arrest and punishment."

He ordered that the drugs which had been recovered by undercover officers were to be destroyed.

Robin Shellard, defending, said: "The sophistication is reflected in his age.

"Most drug dealers don't put their name on a website under 'Beni Bristol' and their telephone number, enabling Avon and Somerset police to use their finest detective skills to find them in no more than five minutes."

Mr Shellard said his client was "rabbiting about nothing" when he supplied undercover police in a van in a drug dealing venture doomed to failure.

He said: "He is a young man who could have some potential.

"He decided he would waste that potential by applying skills not to apply himself at all.

"It is hoped he will realise he's not a very good criminal and a poor drug dealer."