Notorious Harrogate drug dealer caught supplying cocaine for second time in space of a year jailed

Robert Luke Varela, 27, was caught “bang at it” after police spotted him lurking suspiciously on Franklin Road, Harrogate.

Prosecutor Camille Morland told York Crown Court that Varela - who once bragged he would “need a counting machine” due to the vast profits he was making from his illicit trade - took his hands out of his pockets as police drove past and threw a bag of crack cocaine to the ground.

She said that when officers went to speak to him, they found the bag, containing 11 wraps of high-purity crack cocaine, dumped on the pavement.

They seized an iPhone from Varela on which WhatsApp messages showed he had been dealing crack cocaine in the three months preceding his arrest in February 2021.

Varela, formerly of Harrogate, was charged with possessing crack cocaine with intent to supply and ultimately admitted the offence. He appeared for sentence via video link today.

Ms Morland said that in February 2022, Varela was jailed for two years and three months for possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply in 2019.

That sentence was imposed without Varela or the prosecuting authorities informing the then sentencing judge that he had been quizzed about the new matter a year earlier.

He was arrested for the 2019 offences after eagle-eyed security staff and Harrogate Borough Council’s CCTV operators spotted Varela and his notorious sidekick Sirus Alexander, then aged 21 and from Idle, Bradford, engaged in a shady transaction in a red Audi with two “unknown men” behind an Early Learning Centre in Harrogate.

Alexander and Varela scuttled off to a nearby Travelodge where they stashed over 60 wraps of heroin and cocaine in their room.

Police turned up at the hotel, but the two men had vanished.

A search of the room revealed a major cocaine and heroin stash worth about £2,575 - as well as a machete and digital weighing scales.

In the early hours of the following morning, police received another call from CCTV operators who spotted the pair going into Asda in the town centre.

Officers swooped on the supermarket and arrested the two men where Varela was found with a large hunting knife in his jacket and about £300 cash.

Varela, who was living in Elland before being jailed, had 17 previous offences on his record including assault, possessing cocaine and carrying a blade.

He was jailed for the latter offence in August 2021.

Defence barrister Lydia Pearce said Varela should have been sentenced for all the dealing offences in February last year.

She said that Varela was twice interviewed about the previous dealing matters in 2019 but carried on offending until his arrest in Harrogate in February 2021.

Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, told Varela: “This case has come back to bite you, but that’s your fault, as well as the prosecution’s fault.”

He said that if Varela had been facing this new offence alone, he would have been looking at a jail sentence measured in years, but that he should have been sentenced for all matters over a year ago, which meant he would receive a reduced sentence.

The judge said that the new offence was part and parcel of Varela’s overall offending and “showed you were a determined drug dealer bang at it”.

Varela, who was due to be released from his existing prison sentence in December this year, was handed a new 12-month jail sentence which will run consecutively and extend his period behind bars by a further six months.