A man who ran a drugs line and was caught with more than £10,000 in cash has been jailed for seven and a half years.
Patrick Kargbo, 23, ran the line by sending hundreds of messages marketing heroin and cocaine to a group of contacts from a single mobile phone.
Between Monday 14 July and Friday 12 December last year, he sent more than 950 bulk messages advertising drugs from the phone, Lewes Crown Court was told.
After months of investigation, Kargbo, from Eastbourne, was arrested when police raided an address in Ryelands Drive, Brighton, on Tuesday 9 December.
Sussex Police said: “Officers seized
- 74 wraps of cocaine
- 4g of heroin
- 8g of cocaine
- over 700g of a crack cocaine cutting agent
- four sets of scales
- multiple pots and containers containing crack cocaine residue
- £10,885 in cash
“Kargbo was located inside the property after having tried to flush a mobile phone and drugs down a toilet. The phone was also seized and he was arrested.
“The next day (Wednesday 10 December) Kargbo was charged with five counts of possession with intent to supply a class A drug and breach of a slavery and trafficking prevention order.”
The trafficking prevention order, prohibiting from having a phone not registered with the police, was imposed four years ago when Kargbo was jailed for modern slavery and drug dealing.
Sussex Police added: “He appeared later the same day (Wednesday 10 December) at Brighton Magistrates’ Court and was remanded in custody.
“The investigation continued and, at his plea hearing on Thursday 21 May 2026, Kargbo pleaded guilty to the charges and was remanded until his sentencing.”
Kargbo, 23, of Royal Sussex Crescent, Eastbourne, was jailed for seven and a half years by Judge Stephen Mooney at Lewes Crown Court on Wednesday 22 July.
Judge Mooney ordered Kargbo to forfeit the cash which will be handed to the Sussex Community Foundation.
The judge also ordered Kargbo to forfeit the drugs, paraphernalia and phone and for them to be destroyed.
Naomi Edwards, prosecuting, told the court that Kargbo had previously been jailed for four years and nine months in February 2022 at Brighton Crown Court for supplying drugs and trafficking a child.
His previous sentence followed an investigation led by the British Transport Police (BTP) which found that Kargbo and Jerome Ferusa had exploited a vulnerable 16-year-old boy, forcing him to supply drugs.
The boy had been reported missing and Kargbo and Ferusa were sentenced in the crown court, along with two other members of the same drugs gang.
The boy’s phone data showed that he was shuttling by train between Eastbourne and Ferusa’s address in Hastings.
Each time the teenager arrived in Eastbourne, a message was sent to hundreds of people from the “Blue” county line, advertising the sale of class A drugs.
The forensic analysis of the communications on the phone linked the Blue line to Ferusa, Kargbo and 20-year-old Brandon French.
Police said that all three were tracked down and arrested in December 2020 and search warrants were executed at their home addresses.
During the search, officers seized equipment used in the trio’s drug supply business, including mobile phones and SIM cards.
One of the phones seized from Ferusa’s address was found to be another deal line supplying heroin and cocaine in Nottinghamshire.
After Kargbo was released on conditional police bail, Sussex Police officers stopped him in an alleyway in Eastbourne.
He was with Bayleigh Cameron-Green who was carrying small pieces of paper with the same phone number written on.
Both men were held on suspicion of drug supply offences and Cameron-Green was further arrested for assaulting a Sussex Police officer as he was being arrested.
Kargbo’s Eastbourne property was again searched after his arrest and officers found 29 wraps of crack cocaine and heroin and another mobile phone used to market drugs.
Police said that the complex investigation conducted into the communications data across several mobile phones and SIM cards led to the gang being linked to the Blue line. They were responsible for supplying drug across the south east of England.
All four men were sentenced on Wednesday 23 February by Judge Stephen Mooney at Brighton Crown Court.
Kargbo, 18, of Royal Sussex Crescent, Eastbourne, pleaded guilty to human trafficking of a child and supplying class A drugs.
He was jailed for four years and nine months and made the subject of a slavery and trafficking prevention order for five years.
Ferusa, 20, of Rushton Road, Northamptonshire, pleaded guilty to human trafficking of a child and supplying class A drugs.
He was jailed for three years and eleven months and was also made the subject of a slavery and trafficking prevention order for five years.
French, 20, of St Mary’s Road, Hastings, pleaded guilty to supplying class A drugs. He was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.
Cameron-Green, 18, of Mogul Lane, Dudley, pleaded guilty to supplying class A drugs and assaulting an emergency worker. He was handed an 18-month community order.
