A DRUG trafficker has been jailed after being caught travelling across south Wales with around £3,500-worth of heroin to sell in the Cardigan area hidden inside himself.

Patrick Byrne was travelling with Daniel Meyler from Newport in Gwent back to Cardigan on October 16, 2021, when they were stopped by police on the A48 just before Cross Hands.

The pair bought drugs in Newport with the intention of selling them back home.

Officers believed the duo had secreted the drugs in their rectums, and they were arrested and taken to Ammanford Police Station.

“[Byrne] produced a stool that contained a package that contained white powder,” said Ms Jones, prosecuting.

The 28.4 grams of powder – which was found to be diamorphine – was split into eight smaller packages, and was estimated to have a street value of £3,500.

Byrne, 49, of Maes y Deri, admitted possessing a class A drug with intent to supply when he appeared at Swansea Crown Court in November.

Meyler, 42, formerly of Williams Terrace in Cardigan, denied the charge, but was found guilty after a three-day trial last month.

He was jailed for four years and six months for the heroin supply, with eight months – running concurrently – for a charge of supplying cannabis which he admitted.

Stuart John, in mitigation, said that Byrne had “battled with heroin addiction on and off since adolescence”.

“He was at the time a heroin user who had then engaged in the supply – as he has done in the past – predominantly to fund his own use of the drug,” he said.

Mr John said the defendant losing his job and then losing his father just over a year later triggered a relapse into drug use.

He said Byrne knew he was facing “a lengthy period in custody” and, having abstained from drugs since the offence, wanted to “utilise” his time in prison as “an opportunity to address these issues”.

Byrne has 33 previous convictions, including two for drug trafficking.

Judge Catherine Richards sentenced Byrne to three years and nine months in prison.