Westcliff drug dealer jailed at Basildon Crown Court

Ruslan Iordanov, 40, was living in Sandown Avenue, Westcliff, when Essex Police caught him dealing cocaine.

Officers stopped a car on Fairfax Avenue, Southend, on December 27 because “it had been driving around very slowly and checks showed it was uninsured,” prosecutor Harry Hewitt said on Thursday.

“The officer asked the defendant – the driver and only occupant of the vehicle – for proof of insurance. Instead, the defendant began texting somebody.

“He was detained for search under the Misuse of Drugs Act and a search of the vehicle located a small black box. It was magnetically stuck to the underneath of the driver’s seat.”

Inside, police found two plastic bags. One was empty. The other contained “four small bags of white powder, which was cocaine,” Mr Hewitt said.

Ruslan Iordanov, from Bulgaria, was living and dealing drugs in Southend, Essex (Image: Essex Police)

Iordanov refused to give police the pin number for his phone but did tell them his address, inside which they found an unlocked Apple laptop with his WhatsApp account open.

“There were messages on there which were suggestive of drug dealing,” the prosecutor said. “Messages of prices, payment methods, locations and insurance for vehicles.”

It also showed the message Iordanov had sent after he was pulled over. It said, simply: “Police.”

Police also found a small quantity of cannabis in Iordanov’s home.

The drug dealer told his defence barrister Fred Batstone he had arrived in the UK legally by aeroplane on a tourist visa, but when probation checked with the Home Office, it said that wasn’t true and Iordanov was an illegal immigrant.

The probation service said Iordanov was “vague” when asked whether he had any criminal convictions in other countries and they felt he was being dishonest.

He claimed to have run up a drugs debt and been threatened into dealing, but the probation service felt it was more likely he had been illegally trafficked into the UK and was paying off a debt to people smugglers.

Mr Batstone said his instructions from his client were that Iordanov was a cocaine user, which was how he met the dealers, and he was working for them after they agreed to pay the deposit on his flat.

“You fall to be sentenced for three offences, the most serious being for possession with intent to supply cocaine,” said Judge Shane Collery KC.

“It is not without its sophistication, in terms of the concealment of the drugs within your vehicle. It is also plain from WhatsApp messages it was not limited to this day.”

He jailed Iordanov for 26 months, saying: “I take the view you should not be in the United Kingdom. I recommend that you are subject to deportation at the end of your sentence.”