A CYCLING cannabis dealer was caught trafficking and with a bundle of cash after a police chase.

Sam Hudacek, 19, of Bishton Road, Newport, was found with the drugs after being strip searched, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Nigel Fryer said it took more than 12 months to bring the teenager to justice after police “over investigated” the case.

He told how Hudacek was caught with two small bags of cannabis weighing 0.92g and 1g by two officers in Newport on April 15, 2019.

MORE NEWS

The defendant also had a mobile phone which contained drug-related messages and the evidence was sent away for forensic examination.

He also had £230 in cash.

Mr Fryer said: “The two police officers saw him in Oliver Road at 4.10pm and his behaviour had all the hallmarks of a street dealer.

“The defendant fled on his bike but was arrested five minutes later in Kitty Hawk Drive. He kept repeating, ‘No comment’, over and over again.

“The text messages on his phone revealed he was working for someone else in the chain.”

Mr Fryer said Hudacek had been sentenced to a community order in 2019 for dealing cannabis in a separate case from the autumn of 2018.

He added: “This should all have been dealt with last May had someone in the police had a modicum of joined-up thinking.”

The defendant pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis with intent to supply.

Gareth Williams, mitigating, asked the court to take into account his factory worker client’s early guilty plea.

Judge Daniel Williams said had he dealt with both cases together, he would have sentenced Hudacek to a short suspended sentence.

He sent him to a young offender institution for 12 weeks, suspended for 12 months.

The defendant was also ordered to carry out 60 hours of unpaid work and pay £670 costs and a £115 victim surcharge.