A drug dealer has been jailed after he was found with more than £2,000 of heroin and crack cocaine a week after coming out of jail.
Abdul Malik was bullied into selling drugs by gun toting gangsters as soon as he was released because he owed them debts from before he went to prison.
He claimed to be threatened at gunpoint and forced to go onto the streets of Exeter with wraps of drugs concealed in his body.
Malik has a long criminal record in which he has used a variety of names, including Andrew Crozier, and was released from Exeter Prison in August last year after a short sentence for theft.
He was found by police just days later at a house in Lancelot Road which he was using as a base for drug dealing.
Malik, aged 27, of Lancelot Road, Exeter, admitted two offences of possession of class A drugs with intent to supply and was jailed for 28 months by Recorder Mr Robert Pawson at Exeter Crown Court.
He told him:"I understand you see yourself as being trapped in a never ending cycle which you need to break out of but I have to take into account the sentencing guidelines.
"You were probably put under significant pressure from people in the drugs trade who are prone to violence but it might be said that if you lie down with dogs you will get fleas."
Mr Jonathan Barnes, prosecuting, said detectives raided the house where he was operating and saw him hiding items inside his body which were later recovered.
These proved to be 11.56 grams of heroin worth £940 and 21.6 grams of crack cocaine worth £1,480. Both were divided up in wraps for street dealing and he was found with £425 cash.
Drug dealing paraphernalia including bags and scales were found at his address and messages on mobile phones showed he was street dealing.
He refused to cooperate with police but later provided a basis of plea in which he said he had been forced into dealing by gangsters who had carried guns in their waistbands.
Mr Joss Ticehurst, defending, said Malik had only been released from a jail sentence a week earlier and was put under pressure to deal drugs.
He said:"Before he was released he told a probation officer he had nowhere to live and would be put under pressure to sell drugs as a result of earlier debts."
Mr Ticehurst said Malik has undergone a detox in jail since his arrest and would be suitable for drug rehabilitation as an alternative to an immediate prison sentence.
