South Tyneside drug dealer caught with more than £300,000 worth of drugs and cash
A man caught with £176,000 worth of Class A drugs and over £200,000 cash has been put behind bars.
Police seized the huge haul of heroin, cocaine and money from two houses and a car linked to Karl Whitehouse, in Hebburn, last September.
Whitehouse, 32, of no fixed address, admitted possessing the drugs with intent to supply and money laundering charges and has been jailed for more than seven years.
Newcastle Crown Court heard police raided the first address and found separate bags, containing 54.3g of cocaine and 101g of heroin in the garden, as well as £28,000 cash inside the property.
At a second house in the same town officers found a total of £174,616 in cash as well weapons, including knuckle dusters and a zombie knife in an outdoor bin.
Two packages of high grade cocaine, weighing 986g and 662g were found in the boot of a Nissan car.
The court heard the total value of the drugs was between £140,200 and £176,260.
Whitehouse pleaded guilty to four charges of possessing class A drugs with intent to supply and three of possessing criminal property, otherwise known as money laundering.
Christopher Knox, defending, told the court Whitehouse had been "required" to get involved and said the cash and drugs did not belong to him.
Judge Carolyn Scott sentenced Whitehouse to seven years and two months behind bars.
The judge told him: "You played an operational role in a chain. You were the holder of a significant amount of drugs.
"People who become involved in drugs to this extent must expect substantial prison sentences for their offending."
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