Jail for drug dealer linked to marquess

A DRUG dealer who was said to have supplied the Marquess of Blandford with the cocaine derivative crack was jailed for four years yesterday. Another man, who was described as the principal drug dealer on a housing estate in north-west London dubbed 'Crack City', was sentenced to five years.

Knightsbridge Crown Court was told that the two were arrested after one of the biggest undercover police operations of its kind, when 30 officers, posing as buyers, moved into the Mozart estate, Kilburn, last March.

John Powell, 37, of Hammersmith, west London, who admitted five offences of supplying crack, was the main dealer on the estate.

Anthony James, 28, who lived on the estate and acted as a go-between for buyers and dealers, also admitted four offences of supplying crack. Referring to a newspaper report, Mark Gadsden, for the prosecution, said of James: 'He was a man who achieved infamy by being photographed buying drugs for the Marquess of Blandford.'

In October, James was jailed for 18 months for attacking an actress, Catherine Gielgud-Killick, great- niece of Sir John Gielgud. The court was told that she was scarred for life when he slammed her head in a car door during an attempted handbag snatch.

During further hearings yesterday, two other men were also jailed. Anthony Benjamin, 31, of no fixed address, was sentenced to 4 1/2 years for supplying crack and stealing a money pouch. Earl Grimes, 29, of Gosfield Street, central London, received a similar sentence for supplying crack and breaching a suspended sentence.