Police Say Newport Man Posed as Family Man While Running Multi‑Million Pound Cocaine Network

Police in South Wales say a man living as a seemingly ordinary family man ran a large-scale cocaine operation until investigators traced his activities through WhatsApp messages found on an associate’s phone and covert surveillance.

South Wales Police allege that 34-year-old Robert Andrews Jr, of Newport, supplied large quantities of cocaine and heroin across the region and sold about 85 kilograms of cocaine over nine months in 2023. The force says the inquiry began after messages exchanged between Andrews and an associate, Kerry Evans, were recovered from Evans’s phone during a separate investigation.

The messages, reproduced in media reports, included exchanges in which the pair joked that they would either become "millionaires" or end up "sharing a cell." Police say those texts were the first clear intelligence linking Andrews to organised drug supply and prompted targeted surveillance.

Undercover officers followed Andrews to a woodland clearing near the M4, where they filmed him conducting several alleged handovers, including footage that showed him exchanging bags of cash. One sting led to the arrest of a local taxi driver, Mohammed Yamin, who police say was found with 2 kilograms of high‑purity cocaine with an estimated street value of £200,000. Surveillance footage reported by investigators showed a buyer presenting a £5 banknote whose serial number had been shared with Andrews in advance as a verification method.

Andrews was arrested in a dawn raid on his home in December 2023. Video released by investigators shows him laughing as officers read out the charges. Officers who searched his terraced house reported seizing large sums of cash and said they found evidence that he had used illicit proceeds to build a new home on a secluded plot and had installed a kitchen reportedly worth about £60,000.

Detective Chief Superintendent Andrew Tuck, who discussed the operation in the BBC documentary Catching a Crime Boss, told investigators that Andrews was not a street-level dealer but "was dealing in large quantities, kilo amounts of controlled drugs." South Wales Police have described Andrews as the leader of an organised crime group involved in the supply of cocaine and heroin across South Wales.

Evans, identified as one of Andrews’s associates, was convicted in a separate case and sentenced last year to 14 years and five months in prison. Police say the earlier conviction and the material seized from Evans were pivotal in identifying Andrews and building the wider investigation.

Law enforcement officials and academics who study organised crime say the case echoes a broader pattern in which high-level drug operators maintain outwardly ordinary lives that conceal sophisticated criminal activity. The investigations follow a string of major prosecutions that were aided by the hacking and subsequent law enforcement exploitation of EncroChat, an encrypted communications platform used by organised criminals.

The EncroChat disruption led to convictions of other figures who appeared to lead conventional lives while overseeing illicit networks. Media and court reports cite cases including Thomas Maher, described as an Irish haulage firm owner convicted after messages showed he arranged the movement of cocaine, and Richard Weild, who ran a motor company while prosecutors said he used encrypted messages to coordinate drug shipments and was jailed for long sentences.

Commenting on the psychological dimensions that may enable such double lives, Dr. David Holmes, a criminal psychologist, told media outlets that some individuals involved in high-level organised crime display traits that make them able to compartmentalise illegal activity and ordinary family life. "These are people who may themselves have used drugs socially and been given the opportunity somewhere down the line to get involved in the finance side or import or export," he said in a published interview.

Investigators said digital forensic work, covert surveillance and traditional policing all played roles in dismantling the alleged network. Police in South Wales continue to investigate and have not disclosed whether further arrests or charges are expected in connection with the operation.