Northwich county lines drug dealer jailed at Chester Crown Court

Zach Parry, of Cromwell Road in Northwich, has been sentenced to 27 months in prison after admitting to possessing cocaine and crack cocaine with intent to supply.

He played a part in a Merseyside-based county lines operation, supplying drugs to the Northwich area between June and July, 2023.

Before he was sentenced at Chester crown Court on Wednesday (September 18), it was heard how 26-year-old Parry had only become involved as a result of his own addiction.

Recorder Jeremy Lasker said: “You resorted to selling drugs to fund your habit and to reduce the drugs debt that had built up.

“Unhappily, it is nearly always the case that everyone who is involved in the supply of drugs has someone above them in the chain.

“It is very rare that police are able to get those who are high ranking and especially those at the very top.”

Zach Parry, 26, of Cromwell Road, Northwich (Image: Cheshire Police)

Shannon Stewart, prosecuting, explained that police acquired a production order which allowed them to investigate two devices believed to be involved in the supply of drugs in Northwich.

Messages uncovered made it clear that the user of one of the devices, addressed as Zach, was involved in the supply of class A drugs, as well as cooking cocaine to make crack cocaine.

However, this user also told one potential customer that he ‘was not in charge’.

On November 3, 2023, aware that police were looking to speak with him, Parry handed himself in to Northwich Police Station.

However, he didn’t bring the phone with him and refused to say where it was.

The device was never located.

Max Saffman, defending, told the court how his client first turned to cannabis in his teenage years because of pressures he was facing at home, including having to care for his mother.

He also mentioned how a week before Parry began dealing, he was given a caution for shoplifting.

“He tells me that he wasn’t so much funding his drug addiction but stealing food to feed himself.”

Mr Saffman continued: “In 2023 the drug addiction which had been simmering in his teenage years and early 20s took control of him.

“No doubt, he was at the lowest ebb of his life.

“Drug addiction had taken over his life and had got completely out of control.”

At the peak of his addiction, Parry was spending up to £100 a day.

Taking this into account alongside his guilty plea and two previous convictions – both for possession of cannabis – Mr Lasker sentenced Parry to 27 months in prison.

He will have to serve up to half of this before being released on licence.