A drug dealer has been jailed after a lengthy investigation dismantled a county line which ran almost 900g cocaine and heroin into Southend.

Daniel Mutambo, 32, admitted conspiring to supply Class A drugs after the work of Essex Police's specialist Op Raptor team irrefutably linked him to the ‘Jay’ line.

The investigation focused on the line’s drug dealing activity between June and December 2022.

Across this period, the ‘Jay’ line sent out tens of thousands of bulk advertising messages to customers, offering cocaine and heroin.

It operated out of Ilford, in east London, with runners working in shifts to sell harmful Class A drugs on the streets of Southend.

A hearing at Basildon Crown Court yesterday heard, by a conservative estimate, the line facilitated around 1,700 individual drug deals in that time, involving just short of 900g of Class A drugs.

This operation would have yielded tens of thousands of pounds in criminal profits.

It was found Mutambo, of Westley Road, Langdon Hills, operated at a higher level than the runners on the street.

He was arrested at an address in Ilford on December 8  last year and was found with the drugs line phone.

He made no comment to police in interview, but due to the weight of evidence against him he admitted to his role.

Mutambo was also sentenced for assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to a separate incident of violence.

The dealer was arrested on July 19 this year in Southend after reports of a fight between a group in Hartington Road.

He was found to have bitten a security guard while being restrained, causing bruising and bleeding.

Mutambo has been jailed for four and a half years for the drug dealing matter and 5 months for the assault.

Both sentences will run concurrently.

Other members of the ‘Jay’ line have already been sentenced for their roles in the operation earlier this year.

DS Rob Maile, of our Op Raptor team, said: “This was a detailed investigation into a sophisticated drug dealing operation, which saw substances which cause irreparable harm to vulnerable users peddled on the streets of Southend.

“We have teams of experienced officers working around the clock, dedicated solely to cracking these drug supply networks.

“Criminals operating under the impression they can do business in Essex are demonstrably wrong.

“We will catch them and they will be punished with considerable prison sentences.”