A DRUG dealer arrested as part of a seven-month undercover police sting has been jailed for five years.

David Hands, 24, of Grange Road, Billericay, was arrested for his part of working with an organised gang that peddled cocaine across Essex.

Basildon Crown Court heard Hands was arrested in Basildon in early August this year.

He was charged with and admitted one count of being in possession of a Class A drug with intent to supply and one count of money laundering and was jailed for five years.

He was caught after officers carried out raids earlier this year where police seized £100,000 in cash and cocaine worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

That followed surveillance carried out by detectives from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate who had mounted a seven-month long undercover operation codenamed Operation Putney.

His arrest and conviction has led to a number of other arrests being made.

Three men were arrested at their homes in Brentwood and surrounding areas earlier this month.

Two men, aged 33 and 34, were bailed until February next year while the third man, Glen Bingle, a 27-year-old scaffolder from Tring Gardens, Romford, was charged with one count of conspiring to supply a Class A drug.

He has already appeared at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court, where he was remanded in custody. He will next appear at Chelmsford Crown Court on January 20.

Three other people have also been arrested.

Eric Athanassiou, a 45-year-old unemployed man of no fixed address, was arrested in August this year and pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court to one count of being in possession of a Class A drug with intent to supply.

He was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in September.

Daniel Godstchalk, a 32-year-old electrician, from Denby Grange, Harlow, was charged with one count of being in possession of a Class A drug with intent to supply.

He is due to appear at Chelmsford Crown Court in December.