Coke sellers ‘will triple gross sales’ for England Euros semi however ‘dangers are huge’

Britain’s drug dealers are set to make huge profits thanks to England reaching the semi-final of Euro 2024. But the risks are “massive”.

This is according to Rich Jones, a former British Army veteran who served seven years in jail for conspiracy to supply cocaine.

He once considered ending his life after losing four kilos of the addictive powder – but the reformed character has turned his life around.

READ MORE: ‘I made a fortune selling drugs when England played – I’d sit in pub with pockets of coke’

Click for more of the latest news from the Daily Star.

And while Gareth Southgate prepares his men for the historic clash with the Netherlands on Wednesday, Rich said Class A dealers throughout the country will be preparing just as diligently.

But he warned that demand will be so high that Brits looking to get on the gear may end up with low-quality coke.

Giving an insight, he said: “We are a nation of drinkers and with that comes the other one (cocaine) for some people, so this is a massive deal preparation-wise. You would try your best to order in as much as you can but the trouble is at a wholesale level, where whatever is there is there.

“So the people in the middle, their orders go up and they start looking at options at how they can spread the goods, around which usually means stuff going out is lower grade.

“A lot more pub grub will hit the street, quite literally, because of supply and demand. People are going to be so drunk anyway they won’t notice what they are doing. So half of it will be cut with things like benzocaine, caffeine, novocaine and creatine.”

Rich, 54, said that during his time in the murky underworld, he would have been “easily” able to triple his profits for a big do-or-die England match.

He never operated at street level but he said the “risks were also triple” there – and explained why it could be a dangerous night for opportunistic dealers.

“What you have to keep in mind is that the police know this as well so you are hoping to f*** you don’t get a nicking,” he said.

“If you lose a shipment, someone shuts down, or a normal supply isn’t available, that affects a lot of people and people are looking for even more supplies, which means the stuff going out is getting cut even more than it would have done.

“If you are moving more stuff around in volume, when it gets to street level that is when you are increasing the risk massively and people are going to risk selling to people they don’t necessarily know and selling to new customers.

“But the risks could also be undercover police officers and the risk of getting robbed – it just elevates it all massively along with the profit.”

Rich joined the army aged 18 and was posted in Germany during the Cold War and Northern Ireland in the Troubles before leaving the forces seven years later in 1995 to become a bodyguard.

He later became a drug dealer but during his time in prison, he reformed himself and wrote the first book in his Lost Soldier series – with the latest one, Overseas Operations, being published earlier this year.

The author, who was released in 2019, is now a guest speaker and mental health practitioner who treats military veterans.

And as for how drugs will be moved on the ground during England’s semi-final here in Britain, he said: “You would certainly have your dealers going into the pubs, touting around and looking for people on it.

“People are using the infrastructure that is already there like the dark web to sell their stuff and that would increase too. But on average, from my experience, you are looking at selling maybe three or more times what you would do on a normal weekend.”