A COUNTY line dealer was rumbled with 42 wraps of heroin stuffed in his bottom when police searched a drug den in Basingstoke last year.

Kaim Mpenga was handed a three year prison sentence at Winchester Crown Court today (Friday, August 6) for his 'management' role in a drug network after being found in possession of the heroin, £855 in cash and two mobile phones.

The court heard how, on June 26 2020, police raided the house on Chequers Road which had come to their attention as being used for cuckooing, with a vulnerable person living there being used by drug dealers.

The 24-year-old pleaded guilty last month to possession with intent to supply a Class A drug, and to possessing criminal property.

Isabel Delamere, prosecuting, said: “The defendant was on the premises and police saw the defendant move his hand towards his trousers. They indicated that he was going to be searched, and he said that he had drugs ‘cheeked’ and produced 42 wraps of heroin from between his buttocks.”

£855 was also found in his trousers pocket, as well as two “dirty phones” with “requests for heroin and coke and the usual marketing messages” on them, Ms Delamere said.

The drugs were in wraps of 0.1g, with street value of £10 each, or £420 total.

Ms Delamere referenced a previous, similar offence in January 2019 in Oxford, for which Mpenga was sentenced to 32 months in prison in May 2021.

“It’s the crown’s case that this defendant is county lines,” she said.

“He is not from these areas, he is from London, and the Crown would say that this is a man who has operated in two different areas. He is not a lead role, but he definitely has an operational management function within a chain and an awareness of the scale of the operation.”

However, in mitigation, Chloe Birch, defending, disputed this, claiming that the previous offence was “completely separate” with the second offence taking place “quite a considerable amount of time” after the first.

She said: “In the interim, Mr Mpenga was working. In my submission, that time working at a legitimate job does not paint the picture of somebody who is moving around the country with an active drug line.

“It is not my submission that the crown is not evidencing that this is a moving chain, but rather that because he has offended before, he must be part of a county line.”

She added that the Oxford offence had been a “one-off” incident which was “repaying a debt for an older brother” and that in Basingstoke “he knew it was wrong, but he was not in charge or leading anything, and had no understanding of the scale.”

The court heard how Mpenga lost his child to Covid while in custody which has been “very difficult” for him, but that he has “spent considerable time being proactive in custody” including taking courses in maths, english, painting and decorating and drug rehabilitation, and working in the kitchen.

“He has asked me to pass on his acknowledgement and his reflection, and that he is sorry to find himself in front of the court again,” said Ms Birch.

Ms Birch also added that delays in court appearances meant her client has faced two sentences, whereas a court may have given him concurrent penalties should the two incidents have been considered together.

Addressing Mpenga, Recorder Roger Harris said: “It has been suggested on your behalf that were you to have been sentenced for both [offences] at the same time, there is a risk that you will now end up serving longer than you otherwise would have done, and I take that into account.”

He continued: “This is an offence that is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified.”

The judge handed Mpenga three years imprisonment and ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs and phones, and forfeiture of the cash.