Richard Yeboah hid more than 100 wraps of class A drugs

Richard Yeboah, 19, of Bideford Road, Bromley, was arrested on March 17 after armed cops swooped on a house in Norn Hill, Oakridge, following a tip-off from the Metropolitan Police in London.

No drugs were recovered from the house except for a cannabis grinder, but police detained Yeboah amid suspicions that he had swallowed drugs.

At Basingstoke police station, a small quantity of herbal cannabis was recovered from his pocket. However, it was during a further search of Yeboah at the station on March 22, that officers recovered a cling film package from a tracksuit he was wearing under his jeans. It was covered in excrement.

Simon Edwards, prosecuting, said officers recovered 51 wraps of heroin weighing 5.93grams, and 75 wraps of crack cocaine weighing 7.60grams.

Defence barrister Rebecca Nieto said Yeboah had been a gang member since he was 15 and had a “very troubled and difficult upbringing”.

Yeboah claimed he had been stabbed four times, and was forced to live outside Lewisham, where his parents lived, for fear of gang- related attacks.

Miss Nieto said he sold drugs to help support his elderly disabled father, and his mother. “A huge amount of his drug dealing money goes to his parents,” she said.

Judge Susan Evans sentenced Yeboah to two years and eight months in a young offenders’ institution for one count of possession of class A drugs with intent to supply, one count of possession of a class A drug, and one count of possession of a class B drug.

She said: “I accept that you have been part of gang culture and found it difficult to pull away from that.”

Detective Sergeant Graeme Eaton, of Basingstoke CID, who led the investigation, welcomed the sentence and said officers, supported by specialist teams, used intelligence to make Basingstoke a hostile place for drug dealers.

He said: “We will not tolerate these individuals travelling to Basingstoke to set up their distribution networks within our communities.”