A drug dealer from Bury St Edmunds who was making £75,000 each year off his criminal activity has been jailed for almost six years.

Before Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday for sentencing was Samuel Roles, of Winthrop Road in the town, who had previously admitted to possession with intent to supply cocaine and cannabis along with conspiracy to supply cannabis, importing cannabis and possession of criminal property, namely cash.  

Roles, 26, was first caught by police in a BMW with an accomplice who was sentenced last week, the court heard.

Samuel Roles appeared via video link from prison at Ipswich Crown CourtSamuel Roles appeared via video link from prison at Ipswich Crown Court (Image: Suffolk Police) He ran out of the car with a bag of cocaine with a street value of up to £7,400 but was arrested.

While on bail for this offence he became more deeply involved with drugs and began ordering cannabis from the US.

At London Stansted Airport in north Essex, a package containing 3.6kg of cannabis was intercepted with his address written on it.

However, the court heard Roles was not actually the top of the business and the money going into his account was also going out to the leader of the drug operation.

Police raided the defendant’s address, and he tried to evade arrest by jumping over a garden fence in his boxer shorts before being restrained on the ground, the court heard.  

However, in mitigation the court heard threats had been made to Roles’ family and there was an attack on the home of his mother and stepfather when he was beginning to get more heavily involved in the enterprise.

Judge Nicola Talbot-Hadley jailed Roles for 69 months and told him: “This industry has a massive impact on people, and it leads to the exploitation of others.

"You have been exploited but you have exploited others beneath you.”