Woman drug dealer, 29, secretly funded her life of luxury by selling heroin and crack

A drug dealer secretly financed her life of luxury with designer handbags and vacations abroad selling heroin and crack.

Danielle Stafford, 29, of Hallgate, Cottingham, spent the cash on nine watches and three expensive Louis Vuitton bags.

The engineer, graduated from the University of Hull, he also bought a second home and lived his life without touching any of his normal salary money due to a long-lasting ‘extra stream of cash income’.

However, after being caught purely by chance when police saw her speeding, her drug empire began “to crumble before her very eyes,” Hull Crown Court heard.

A phone rang constantly with 30 calls or pinged up to 20 drug messages after she was arrested and police later found £26,917 in cash hidden around her home and drugs with a street value of £33,600.

The engineer and Hull University graduate was able to buy a second home and lived her life without touching any of her normal salary money due to a long-lasting “extra stream of cash income”.

Stafford admitted to three counts of being involved in supplying heroin, crack and cannabis and one count of possession of cash as criminal property, for dates spanning October 2017 and May 2020.

He originally denied nine counts, but suddenly changed his guilty plea to four counts after the trial began.

Nadim Bashir, the prosecutor, said police recovered text messages on Stafford’s phone from October 2017 that involved her directing another woman to complete £10 or £20 cannabis deals in her absence.

There were also lists of people who owed money.

Police in Hull at 7:30pm on 12 May 2020 saw a silver Audi driving down Priory Road towards the city centre.

It was going at high speed and made a hasty turn onto Hotham Road South, cutting the corner and cutting off a vehicle heading in the opposite direction.

The car was followed and stopped at The Odd Bottle car park on Wold Road. The police could smell the cannabis coming out of the car and this aroused their suspicions.

She ‘immediately lied’ and told police: ‘I’ll be honest, I have this’ and handed police a small silver wrapper containing two skunk cannabis buds.

Police found more bags of cannabis in it, including a food bag containing cannabis skunk and, from one pocket, another food bag containing cannabis skunk.

The car was searched and a bag of marijuana worth £1,308 was found behind the driver’s seat.

Police found £26,917 in cash hidden around his home and drugs with a street value of £33,600

Stafford admitted to three counts of being involved in supplying heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis and one count of possession of cash as criminal property, for dates spanning October 2017 and May 2020

On the way to the police station, Stafford was seen ‘playing’ with his sweatpants and was asked if he had any more drugs hidden.

She said, ‘Yes, but it’s not mine and I don’t know what it is. I put it in my pants when you dumped me.

Stafford pulled out, from between his legs, a bag containing a large number of sachets of cocaine. There were 56 crack packs, valued at £2,800.

His three-bedroom, end-terrace house in Cottingham was searched after police forced their entry.

A glass jar with plastic bags inside was found hidden behind a bag of coal bricks in a coal bunker in the backyard. In the jar were 270 packs of crack, valued at £13,500, and 205 packs of heroin, valued at £4,100. Stafford denied knowing them.

Wads of cash were also found in his bedroom and closet.

“Even with rental or accommodation allowances, neither property was able to provide a significant source of income to justify the cash found in the home,” Bashir said.

During the police interview, Stafford claimed that a boy from Liverpool had stayed with her from time to time and had phoned her to tell her that he had left something at her house.

Stafford, who has no prior convictions, was allowed a conditional bond.

When she got home there was a large amount of cannabis, and when he asked her to take it with him, she said she didn’t feel comfortable doing so.

She claimed that he asked her to just bring a bag that was there and in a panic she grabbed a bag and was driving to meet him. Stafford denied that she or the boy were dealing drugs, but later admitted that she would drive to Liverpool and bring him back to Hull.

She denied knowledge of any of the large amounts of cash found in her home, claiming that she looked after it for the boy, even keeping it for himself in his own bedroom, in addition to £2,350 that belonged to her.

He told the court that Stafford was a ‘keen’ cannabis dealer and progressed to become a Class A cocaine dealer.

“He somehow managed to avoid having his drug trafficking activities draw the attention of the police for a considerable period of time,” Bashir said.

Sentencing was deferred by the reports and Stafford, who has no prior convictions, was allowed on probationary bail. He previously spent long periods in custody, but was later allowed out on bail.