A 19-year-old county lines drug dealer found with heroin and crack cocaine worth £2,500 when he was arrested in Colchester has been given 42 months youth detention.

Zoumana Coulibaly was riding a bicycle shortly after midnight on April 13 last year when he was detained by police, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

He was found to have 36 wraps of heroin weighing 4.51g and 132 wraps of crack cocaine weighing 11g with a mid-market value of £2,500, said John Farmer, prosecuting.

He was also in possession of £225 cash, a telephone and a contact list.

Three months later on July 12 paramedics in Gillingham were called to treat Coulibaly who had suffered two stab wounds to the back of his right thigh.

In one of his pockets they found six wraps of crack cocaine and four wraps of heroin with a mid-market value of £150.

A knife and a phone containing messages indicative of drug dealing were also found on him, said Mr Farmer.

He said Coulibaly claimed he had been indebted to a man who had supplied him with the drugs that were seized by police when he was arrested in Colchester and was stabbed when he said he didn’t want to sell any more drugs for him.

Coulibaly, of Sunderland Court, London, admitted possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to supply on April 13 2019 and possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to supply and possession of a knife in Gillingham, Kent on July 12 last year.

Sentencing, Judge Rupert Overbury said Coulibaly had tried to make some “easy money” by selling drugs after losing a part time job at a supermarket and not being able to get another job.

“You made the wrong choice to make a fast buck,” said the judge who described the case as “classic county line drug dealing”.

Adam Bedworth for Coulibaly, who appeared via a prison video link, described his client as “naive”.

“He quickly realised he was out of his depth and wishes he had never had never got involved,” said Mr Budworth.