A TEENAGER condemned by a judge for “acting like some big drug lord” has been locked up for eight years.

Although only 18-years-old, Morgan Lee was a boss in an organised crime gang who dealt crack cocaine and heroin throughout Newport and beyond.

Prosecutor Nicholas Gedge told Cardiff Crown Court how the defendant had openly bragged about his exploits on Facebook.

Lee, of Swallow Way, Duffryn, Newport, boasted about how “lucrative” the drugs trade was by posting pictures of himself surrounded by piles of cash.

Mr Gedge said he was caught with half a kilo of crack cocaine and half a kilo of heroin which had a combined value of more than £45,000.

The teenager also had an image of himself standing on top of a police car and another mocked up photograph of a van which advertised a spoof business called ‘Class A Cleaning Mr Washee’.

This was a reference to how Lee was turning cocaine into crack cocaine, a process sometimes known as washing.

Mr Gedge said: “Lee had a network of others who reported to him. The scale of the operation was significant.

“He was the head of his own streamlined drugs business. He was playing a leading role in an organised crime group.”

“Threats of significant violence were made over the enforcement of drug debts.”

The defendant had “terrorised” one of his customers and threatened him after storming into his bedroom naked with a Stanley knife and ran the blade up his face.

Lee, the court heard, suspected Lyndon Gilmore of being responsible for £10,000 of drugs going missing.

The defendant “bullied” him and would frequently turn up at his Duffryn home unwelcome and uninvited and use it to cut and prepare drugs.

In August, Lee, another man and three women went there in the early hours of the morning and Mr Gilmore retreated to his bedroom.

He said he could hear the defendant asking the others what they would do if someone owed them money.

Mr Gedge said: “One of the females replied, ‘I’d stick a knife in that person.’”

The prosecutor added that soon after: “Mr Gilmore was under the quilt and felt someone slashing at it.

“He then saw Lee completely naked and ‘out of his head’”.

The court heard how Mr Gilmore escaped the house through his bedroom window and fled to his partner’s home “shaking and crying”.

Lee pleaded guilty to two counts of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs and affray.

The court head he had a previous conviction for possession of heroin with intent to supply when he was 17 and had breached a number of orders subsequently after being convicted of offences which included dangerous driving.

Judge Jeremy Jenkins shook his head in disbelief when he heard how Lee was sentenced to a series of youth rehabilitation orders for these charges by magistrates, non custodial terms.

Gareth Williams, mitigating, said his client had admitted his offending at an early stage.

He added that Lee had fallen in with the wrong crowd and “wasn’t in school as much as he should have been”.

Judge Jenkins told the defendant: “You were acting like some big drug lord.”

In continually breaching court orders and boasting about his exploits he said Lee had shown “utter contempt for the authorities”.

He sent the teenager into a young offender institution for eight years.

Mr Gedge also made a Proceeds of Crime Application against Lee with the hearing due to take place in March.

Outside the court, Police Constable Simon Reed said: “Morgan Lee has been convicted of a number of serious offences.

“The investigation into these offences has been a multi-agency operation and should demonstrate to the public that Gwent Police take all reports seriously and will work tirelessly to investigate serious criminality.”