Jail for Nottingham dealer selling crack in Coalville and Shepshed

A drug dealer selling crack to users in Coalville, Ellistown, Hugglescote and Shepshed hoped he could avoid detection because he lived in Nottingham. But police searched Darnell Fuller’s home and found plenty of evidence to lock him up — including a gun with live ammunition.

They also arrested Mountsorrel dealer Jamie Pladgeman, who was Fuller’s local contact and who had been seen by Leicestershire Police selling drugs around North West Leicestershire. The pair used multiple phone numbers to send bulk messages to known drug users, offering the chance to buy cocaine, crack, Class A addictive drugs, as well as heroin.

The raids took place in March 2022, when both were arrested. The search of Fuller’s home in Kennington Road, Nottingham turned up mobile phones, cash and packages of drugs that proved their links to the trade, as well as the firearm.

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Fuller, 25, later pleaded guilty to supplying crack and heroin and unlawful possession of a firearm. He was jailed for seven years on Friday.

Pladgeman, 33, of Curlew Close, Mountsorrel, near Loughborough, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of crack and heroin. He received a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Detective Constable Chris Fox, the officer on the case, said: “Fuller and Pladgeman were part of a wider group which developed a scheme to target vulnerable people in our communities. They knew that by sending bulk text messages, drug users would come forward.

“Operating from Nottinghamshire I think they thought they wouldn’t get caught. Pladgeman was their local contact in Leicestershire and was seen selling drugs on the streets of North West Leicestershire on a number of occasions.

“Tackling the supply of drugs – and the operations of county line gangs – is a priority for the force and I hope that the communities in which this group operated will take comfort in the fact that their crimes have been discovered and they have been convicted. “