A business studies student who hid class A drugs in a novelty tomato soup can has been jailed for seven and half years.

Abdul Dahir was arrested during an early morning raid by police at a flat in St Andrews Road, Gillingham.

During the operation a can of soup, containing 50g of heroin and 42g of crack cocaine, was thrown from a first-floor window by occupant Benedict Erskine.

A neighbour spotted it on a kerb as the 22-year-old jumped through the same window and onto a roof below.

Having then slipped and fallen into the front garden, Erskine ran off but was arrested in an alleyway by police.

Colleagues burst into the flat and found Dahir, 29, in the bedroom that Erskine had jumped from.

He was watching a programme on his mobile phone after lighting up "a cheeky cigarette", said Prosecutor Kathryn Hirst

Following an extensive search of the property, drug dealing paraphernalia, almost £1,400 in cash, and six mobile phones were seized from the room.

Around 100 packets and 50 capsules of class A drugs were located outside the property on the ground under the bedroom window.

The novelty soup can was found in the street and contained 92g of drugs.

It happened on March 20 and the total estimated street value of the drugs seized totalled £10,610.

Dahir, formerly of Sycamore Avenue, Uxbridge, west London, denied the charges of possession with intent to supply class A drugs, but was found guilty by a jury at Maidstone Crown Court.

Jailing him, judge Julian Smith said: "You were convicted on compelling evidence. This was a commercial enterprise and you were a committed dealer."

Erskine, of Bargrove Close in Crystal Palace, London, pleaded guilty to the same charges at a previous hearing and will be sentenced at a later date, pending a probation report.

Senior investigating officer, detective inspector Kris Eberlein, of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: "This warrant was one of a series of raids carried out in Medway as part of our ongoing crackdown on knife crime and associated offences, such as supplying drugs.

"It has resulted in a prolific drug dealer being put behind bars and safely away from being able to exploit vulnerable people in our communities."

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