A drug dealer who was found to have swallowed wraps of cocaine and heroin and secreted some in his anus when he was arrested in Colchester has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Sentencing Said Kanu, Judge David Goodin accepted he had been put under pressure to sell drugs but warned him that if he appeared before a court again for pushing class A drugs he would be looking at a minimum sentence of seven years.

Kanu, 28, of River Way, Maidstone, admitted possessing cocaine and heroin with intent to supply between November 11 and December 14 last year and was given a two year prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered to do 110 hours unpaid work.

He was also ordered to attend a Thinking Skills programme and was given a 25 day rehabilitation activity requirement.

Hugh Vass, prosecuting, said Kanu’s parents home had been targeted in an arson attack and he accepted that the defendant had been placed under a degree of pressure to become involved in drug dealing.

He said that after Kanu’s arrest at a house in Colchester where drug dealing paraphernalia was found he was taken to hospital where he was found to have 197 wraps of cocaine and 56 of heroin in his stomach and anus.