Leeds drug dealer who stashed £2,000 of crack cocaine in new trainers jailed
Leighton Rangley ‘went off the rails’ at a young age and turned to drugs
A repeat Leeds drug dealer who was found with £2,000 of crack cocaine stored in new trainers was told that his sentences will “get much larger” if he keeps offending.
Leighton Rangley, 20, was issued with a three-and-a-half year prison sentence at Leeds Crown Court this morning (Tuesday) after pleading guilty to two counts of possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and marijuana.
Rangley was on license after being jailed in May 2025 for dealing Class A drugs when police attended his home in April this year and arrested him. During a search of the property they found a black bin liner that was full of new trainers, that in turn were concealing bags of drugs worth £2,000.
Police also confiscated £265 in cash and Rangley’s mobile phone, which had evidence of drug dealing messages including one that read: “Easy bro. You about for cannabis?”
Rangley’s defence counsel, Shannon Woodley, told the court that her client had returned to drug dealing after leaving prison for the previous convictions because he owed a debt to the dealers of £10,000 and “fell back into the cycle”. She added that he is now debt free.
Miss Woodley also said that Rangley, now of no fixed abode, had been using cocaine and cannabis himself from a “very early age” after getting “in with the wrong crowd in the Beeston area”.
She said: “He went off the rails, in his own words.”
She went on to say that Rangley had carried out a number of extra curricular activities in prison and is now drug free. He wants to study photography and video editing when he leaves prison.
Rangley pleaded guilty to the two offences at a pre trial preparation hearing in magistrates’ court.
Sentencing Rangley , His Honour Judge Simon Batiste said: “It’s sad to see a young man at 20 years of age to be before the courts for a second set of drug offences.”
He jailed Rangley for three-and-a-half years, of which he will serve half before being released on remand. The judge also ordered that the £265 in cash confiscated by police be donated to a local charity.
Judge Batiste told him: “I genuinely do hope that the courses you are doing are ones that can help you get employment and avoid getting into drugs in the future.
“If you go back to what you have been doing then I can guarantee that the sentences will get much larger.”