Would-be Reform candidate was jailed for involvement in £14m drug gang
Martin Shipton
An Independent councillor who is chairman of a football club and says he wants to stand as a Reform UK candidate for Parliament was jailed for three and a half years for his involvement in a gang that grew cannabis plants worth £14m.
Two months ago Nick Pritchard was co-opted onto Bangor City Council. He was described as a businessman and entrepreneur.
But in 2010 he was one of several men prosecuted at Caernarfon Crown Court for their involvement in a drugs scandal.
A source told us: “You may be aware that Bangor “businessman” Nick Pritchard has recently announced that he intends to stand as a Reform candidate.
“Ironically, the would-be candidate for the anti-EU party has recently been busy utilising the EU’s ‘right to forget’ law. Previously, Mr Nicholas Pritchard’s name would feature prominently in Google searches related to jail time for the production of drugs in the north Wales area. Now, his name seems to have been completely erased from the records.
Luckily, the original articles are still available though, if you know where to look.”
The source sent us a link to a rambling Facebook video in which Cllr Pritchard criticised immigration and spoke of his decision to seek election as a Reform candidate. The video has since been disabled for general viewers.
He also posted a message in which he demonised asylum seekers, implying they would attack women.
Cllr Pritchard chairs Bangor City FC as well as the Nantporth stadium the team uses for its home matches.
The source also sent us a link to a BBC story from 2010 headlined £14m cannabis factory men jailed in Gwynedd.
Cannabis factory
The story states: “Three men have been jailed for their part in running a cannabis factory in a rented commercial property, involving drugs worth £14m.
“Twenty Chinese and Vietnamese people have already been convicted and sentenced to jail.
“It brings to the end a major investigation, code-named Operation Jade.
“North Wales Police found what is thought to be the largest cannabis farm in the UK – 11,276 plants in Bangor.
“The haul was found in a converted building supplies store.
“The hearing at Caernarfon Crown Court dealt with a property agent and builders involved in the premises used for cultivating the drugs.
“Nicholas Pritchard from Y Felinheli, Gwynedd, a letting agent, who found properties for drug growing, was jailed for three-and-a-half years.
“Twins Keith and Edward Reid, from Anglesey, builders who adapted them, received two-and-a-half years and 18 months respectively.
“They were all convicted of conspiracy to produce cannabis at an earlier trial.
“They were also convicted of money laundering by letting or converting buildings to be used as factories.
“The judge Merfyn Hughes QC told the men: “It is well known that large scale cultivation of cannabis is a huge problem in England and Wales.
“The judge told the men large-scale cultivation of cannabis was a huge problem” ‘Those who do it need assistance from people like you who are prepared to take a risk”’, he said.
“To Nicholas Pritchard he added: ‘You made available to this gang a number of properties including one where the largest crops ever discovered in the UK was found.’
“He told Keith Reid he had the ‘skills to do the conversion work’ and to his brother Edward Reid he said “you helped your brother and you also knew what was going on”.
“Last year the man behind one of the largest cannabis operations in the UK was jailed for nine years.
“Bo Xing He, 31, ran a series of cannabis factories across north Wales producing drugs with an estimated annual street value of almost £14m.
“The factory was described as being of ‘Amazonian proportions’.
“In all 23 people have been convicted of cannabis production offences including 20 Chinese and three Vietnamese people.
“Police said the offences began in September 2007 when a Chinese organised crime gang began to rent a number of industrial and residential premises in north Wales in Conwy, Colwyn Bay, Deganwy, Wrexham, Caernarfon, and Bangor.”
Cllr Pritchard was invited to comment, but did not do so.
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Yet another dodgy Reformer!!! Almost every day we hear of some really colourful party members. Best steer clear of this bunch.
Was he part of the Reform party????? Was he Vetted by the Reform party??? Please answer this someone.
BBC and plaid cymru working together have already been warned
Reform have a type. farage worships trump, convicted felon. Protected a violent abuser as an MP. Farge rated Tate as a source of information and thinks putin is a good bloke.
This one should fit right in.
Reform’s candidate vetting process seems to be going well.
They are haemorrhaging councillors. Quit a few as they are found out for being not nice.
https://bylinetimes.com/2025/11/05/nigel-farages-chosen-reform-mayoral-candidate-suggested-black-britons-cant-be-english/
Was he a member or part of Reform??? Or has this article made you believe that he was?
Yet he is cahoots with the local Labour MP Clare Hughes !
Is he? What has he said or done with her?
Well done nation.cymru for publishing and highlighting this supposedly reformed criminal.
We don’t need any more criminals running the country, we’ve already got enough now!!
Blimey another far right wrong ‘un – is there any one of these people that isnt a criminal?
As if we haven’t got enough already.
With enough deregulation – and apparently all regulation is government overreach for Reform – he’d be exactly the sort of “businessman and entrepreneur” they’d like to see more of.
Sign of the times that someone who served time for drug supply now brazenly broadcasts on social media about standards under the Reform banner, while another of their politicians from just over the Menai Straits could soon be jailed for serving Russia instead of Cymru. Maybe this latest Reform rogue should have learnt how to stay in the underworld, like another who controlled Bangor football club. From this video you’ll see someone standing before the club stand named after him (45 seconds) with very dubious actions that the English often bring to our country: Who are Stephen, Danny, and Sandra… Read more »
As if them wanting to get rid of online safety laws and and the ECHR wasn’t sinister and dark enough.
How many more red flags ard needed for z party??
Was he actually part of the Reform party though?????
Sounds ideal.
Does the EU ‘right to forget’ law still apply or should Google now reverse these changes for UK citizens?
Reform: Toff on organised crime, toff on the causes of organised crime
There is the Freemasons, then Iinked-in and very last and totally least is Reform…
Bad lads and old lags a speciality
Whether or not Nicholas Pritchard has been formally endorsed by Reform UK, the facts are clear: he was convicted in 2010 for facilitating one of the UK’s largest cannabis operations, serving a 3.5-year sentence for conspiracy and money laundering. That’s not speculation—it’s on public record. Now, he holds public office and reportedly seeks to stand for Parliament. That raises serious questions—not just about his past, but about the systems that allowed him to re-enter public life without full disclosure. This isn’t about party politics. It’s about standards. Voters deserve to know: Has he been vetted by any party? Has he… Read more »
Reform, an integrity-free zone.
Again Nigel Farage and Reform UK’s so-called “vetting” system has failed spectacularly as it would have allowed convicted crook Nick Pritchard and other dregs of society to stand for public office while using it as a front for their criminality.
They learnt it off the Tories…the Fat Shanks effect…
How many £billions were nicked or wasted while hundreds of thousands died?
Wouldn’t be surprised if the right honourable Cllr Nick Pritchard is taking Russian money already.
Isn’t he the ranter funding the former acadmeic Dylan Jones Evans and his attacks on the University employees he used to work with?