Swindon cocaine and cannabis dealer jailed after several arrests in town

Leandro Pinto was arrested scores of times around town between 2020 and 2022.

On one occasion, he had been found with a tear gas canister and a large knife in his Kingshill bedroom.

He was condemned by a judge who labelled his lawlessness “persistent and deliberate”.

Leandro Pinto. Photo: Wiltshire Police (Image: Wiltshire Police)

Swindon Crown Court heard on Wednesday (September 7) that Pinto, originally from Portugal, was first arrested in August 2020 when officers were patrolling Cambria Road.

“They smelt cannabis,” prosecutor Tom Wilkins told the court. “The defendant walked past them, they could see the smell was emanating from him.

“He was detained and four grams of cannabis was found on him from a yellow container.”

There was also a phone, a cannabis grinder, and £165 in cash, but when officers took him home, a large knife and more cannabis – totalling around £3,000 - was found.

Detectives also found £3,490 of designer clothes and a canister of CS Gas, Mr Wilkins said.

Over the next almost two years, Pinto was stopped and arrested multiple times.

It was when he was arrested in April this year that officers found messages on his phone “clearly indicative he was selling Class A drugs of the sort he was found with”.

“The messages show he was clearly dealing those drugs and using phones to do so,” Mr Wilkins went on to say.

Defending, Emma Handslip pointed out her client was just 17 at the start of the offending period and that there had been “opportunities missed”.

“We have somebody within a cycle that doesn’t have an education, we have somebody essentially living on the streets, that keeps getting arrested, he’s candid enough to stay why he started, he was smoking cannabis himself," she said.

“You continue and continue, this is somebody who over a period of time was essentially a cannabis dealer, that’s how he was making his money, then we get a severe escalation.

“He was in a debt, he got in over his debt.

“Somebody who isn’t known to police at the age of 17 is ideal to be picked up and do certain things.”

Referencing the tear gas, Miss Handslip said that Pinto, of Theobold Street, had bought it online and sprayed it in his own face.

He then realised how bad it was and had no intention of using it, she said.

Continuing, the solicitor advocate said: “He has a very supportive family. He is somebody that knows he doesn’t want to continue this cycle, it spiralled out of control.

“He didn’t make use of the opportunities when he was arrested but the reality is that was never going to happen. Opportunities were missed by him, but also by others.”

Judge Jason Taylor QC said that Pinto has been “bang at it”.

He said: “It’s quite clear you were dealing cannabis persistently, and it seems from what I now know that you got yourself in debt and things spiralled out of control.

“I have read the pre-sentence report, I make allowance for your age at the date of the offence.

“I recognise you were at times homeless and you got in over your head. But it is encouraging you are using your time [in custody constructively].

“But I have got to reflect this overall spree of offending which was persistent and deliberate.”

After the 19-year-old admitted three counts of possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply, five counts of possession of Class B drugs with intent to supply, possession of criminal property and possession of a weapon, Pinto was jailed for a total of four years and six months.