Drug dealer found cowering in wardrobe when police raided his home

A drug dealer has been jailed for more than five years after he was plucked out of his wardrobe when his home was raided.

Tallanius Bridgland, 29, hid in the closet when he realised who was knocking on his door, but it didn’t take long for him to be found.

He was identified as a dealer in July when phone records for a known class A user showed he had called them multiple times.

That number was tracked to his address in Folkestone, Kent, and he was arrested on October 2 with the help of some sniffer dogs.

Bodycam footage shows the moment he was found, holding a mobile phone, before he is bundled onto a bed where he is handcuffed.

The camera then shows police looking for evidence in the closet.

There they found something suspicious in a large tub of nail varnish bottles. One of the sniffer dogs reacted to the package which turned out to be heroin and cocaine.

They also found bundles of cash and a mobile phone were also seized.

He admitted being involved with drugs and pleaded guilty at Canterbury Crown Court where he was jailed for five years and seven months.

Detective Sergeant Scott Drake, said: ‘Drug addiction causes no end of misery to the lives of users and everyone concerned with them, as well as to those communities where the effects of substance addiction ripple out.

‘Dealers, who are the root of the problem, may go to all ends to try to avoid us but we will always strive to bring them to justice and to remove drugs from the streets of Kent.’

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