County lines drug gang set up shop in Torquay after researching 'druggiest cities'

The three dealers from Smethwick and Birmingham downloaded an article from the Guardian headlined Death by the Sea before they headed to Torquay in a hire car and booked into the Premier Inn.

They were caught red handed selling crack on a notorious drug dealing spot with the apt name of Rock Walk and threw their stash over a cliff without realising that there was a busy road underneath it instead of the sea.

They were found with £5,000 cash from previous deals and a total of £850 worth of heroin and cocaine. A phone recovered from the hire car contained internet searches for ‘druggiest city in UK’ and the Guardian story.

Levi Lovelace, aged 29, formerly of Solihull but now of Alum Rock, Birmingham; Curtis Garvey, aged 30, of Smeaton Avenue, Smethwick, and Nathan McCarthy, aged 29, of Bordersley Green, East Strechford, all admitted possession of class A drugs with intent to supply.

Lovelace was jailed for three years, two months; Garvey for four years; and McCarthy for two years nine months by Recorder Mr Mathew Turner at Exeter Crown Court.

Mr Brian Fitzherbert, prosecuting, said Lovelace hires a Nissan car at Birmingham Airport on January 31, 2020, and used it to drive the other two to Devon. They all stayed in a hotel and he made return trips to Birmingham to pick up more drugs before they were arrested on February 13.

They threw a golf-ball sized bag of drugs over a cliff but police recovered it from the road beneath and found more drugs and cash in the car along with five phones, some of which had been used to advertise drugs and arrange deals.

He said: “An analysis of one of the phones showed a Google search on January 30 for the druggiest cities in the UK and an article from the Guardian titled Death by the Sea which was about how drug abuse was scarring Britain’s coastal town.

“Their search led them to Torquay and on February 2 they were looking up places to eat in Torquay.”

Lawyers representing all three said they had turned their lives round and now have family responsibilities and well paid jobs, with Lovelace working as a scaffolder, Garvey running his own car wash and valeting business and McCarthy working on the HS2 rail project.