Peterborough drug dealer jailed - after claiming he was picking up goods for baker friend

A Peterborough drug dealer caught with heroin, crack cocaine and nitrous oxide cannisters has been jailed.

Police were on patrol in Fletton High Street on the evening of 26 October last year when they came across a man who was acting suspiciously on the street corner.

They observed him from a distance for a few minutes, before he disappeared around the corner but then returned in a green Jaguar with 30-year-old Joseph Kariuki driving.

Officers made their way over to speak with the men as Kariuki got out of the car and a “burner” style mobile phone fell on the ground.

An officer picked the phone up just as it was receiving a text message which read “batch incoming”, prompting the pair and the car to be searched, where 21 wraps of crack cocaine and three wraps of heroin were found inside the car, along with £355 in cash within the centre console.

Fifty boxes each containing 24 capsules of nitrous oxide were found in the boot and a knuckleduster was later found in Kariuki’s bedroom at his home in Touthill Place, Peterborough city centre.

Kariuki appeared at Peterborough Crown Court on Thursday (2 February) where he was sentenced to two years in prison after previously admitting possession with intent to supply class A drugs, possession of an offensive weapon in a private place – namely a knuckleduster, and possession with intent to supply a psychoactive substance – nitrous oxide.

Detective Constable Stephanie Day, who investigated, said: “Despite Kariuki claiming his friend was a baker and had asked him to pick up some “creamers” for him, analysis of his mobile phone showed clear evidence of drug dealing with messaging being sent out in bulk offering various illegal substances.

“He also claimed he didn’t know owning a knuckleduster was illegal – as of July 2021, a new law came into place making it illegal to own certain weapons, rather than be in possession with them in a public place. I would urge people to make themselves familiar with this, any illegal weapons can be taken to a police station to be disposed of.”