Not so funny now... laughing drug dealer filmed with fistful of money finds himself jailed

WATCH: Iestyn Raven flashes fistful of drug money while claiming to be ‘skint’ and ‘struggling’ on the phone to Universal Credit.

This is Iestyn Raven. This film of him speaking to Universal Credit was found on a phone linked to him. In the footage, he picks up a bundle of cash and speaks into it as though it is a phone, saying, ‘I am struggling I am for money right now’, while gesturing and laughing into the camera.

The money in his hand is drug money. Sometime after this recording, Iestyn Raven was arrested by South Wales Police.

A series of other drugs arrests led officers to the 24 year-old Barry man behind the 'Ronnie and Reggie' drug line, which supplied crack cocaine and heroin throughout the Vale of Glamorgan.

Raven was actually identified by officers after he was caught on CCTV topping up data for one of the phones he used to sell drugs.

He was arrested on September 30 when officers from the Cardiff and Vale Organised Crime Team spotted him in the passenger seat of a car at the McDonald’s drive through in Barry.

When they searched the house he was living in, one of the drug phones under investigation by officers was found in a bedside drawer. Crack cocaine, heroin, cash and high-value designer clothing was also recovered.

Raven was charged with being concerned in the supply of heroin, being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine, and acquiring criminal property and went on to plead guilty.

On Thursday, January 16, he appeared for sentencing at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court where he was jailed for 40 months.

Detective Inspector Tim Jones said:

“Iestyn Raven was making a substantial amount of money from his drug dealing and living a life of relative luxury at the expense of others.

“His contemptuous disregard for the damage he was causing is plain to see - he certainly isn’t laughing now and he deserves to be in prison where he can reflect on the path he chose for himself and the misery he has inflicted through his drug dealing.

“Rest assured we will be using the Proceeds of Crime Act to ensure he doesn’t benefit from any ill-gotten gains when he is released."