Irish Olympic sprinter Leon Reid given 21 month suspended sentence

Bristol Crown Court has handed Irish Olympic sprinter Leon Reid a 21-month suspended sentence for his role in sub-letting his flat in Bath, which was then used to facilitate the supply of cocaine.

The sentence arises from last April, when Reid was among five men charged with drugs, firearms and money-laundering offences in Bristol Magistrates’ Court, just over three months before he represented Ireland in the Tokyo Olympics over 200 metres.

Reid was released on court bail, with one of the five men remanded in custody. The five men were arrested in 2020 as part of operation venetic, “the UK law-enforcement response to the takedown of encrypted global communications service EncroChat.”

Items seized at the time included eight kilos of cocaine, four kilos of crystal MDMA, 3,000 ecstasy tablets, a hydraulic press, and £434,000 in cash.

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Reid was found not guilty of concealing criminal property and of three firearms offences, which related to the items seized from his flat in Bath.

A statement released by Avon and Somerset Police earlier on Friday outlined the outcome of the case. Reid was sentenced to 21 months, suspended for 18 months, and 220 hours unpaid work for “allowing his flat to be used by (Romaine) Hyman to produce cocaine and for receiving payment, which text messages showed amounted to £500 a month.”

Romaine Hyman, 30, previously of Portland Place, Bath, was found guilty of 18 offences, including the supply of at least £3 million worth of cocaine to the south west of England, and was sentenced to 26 years.

“Hyman became a key target in a south west regional organised crime unit (SW ROCU) investigation following operation venetic.

“Using the handle ‘Locksmith-rome’, Hyman operated at the centre of four conspiracies to supply cocaine and heroin from London and the Midlands to the south west and two conspiracies to launder the millions of pounds made from that supply. He not only sourced and supplied multi-kilo quantities of drugs, but also smaller supplies to regular customers. He even cooked cocaine himself to produce crack cocaine to sell, and supplied heroin, MDMA and ketamine.”

The 27 year-old Reid switched his allegiance from Britain to Ireland in the summer of 2018. He won a series of underage sprint medals when representing Britain, including a silver medal in the European Under-20 200m in 2013.

Citing a “lack of leadership” in British athletics, he looked to switch allegiance to Ireland in 2017, that transfer coming through just in time for the 2018 European Championships in Berlin, where he made the 200m final.