A former Wembley stadium cleaner has been jailed after he sold drugs in Newton Abbot and Paignton for a London-based drugs gang.
Ackeem Ali (pictured) was caught red-handed selling cocaine, and messages on his phone showed he had sent a group message to users in Newton Abbot on behalf of a County Lines gang.
Ali came from Tower Hamlets but was homeless and moved to Devon to deal drugs in exchange for the offer of free accommodation, Exeter Crown Court was told.
Ali, aged 22, admitted possession with intent and offering to supply class A drugs and personal possession of cannabis and was jailed for two years by Judge Peter Johnson.
He told him: ‘I sentence you on your basis of plea which says that at the end of 2017 you were addicted to crack cocaine and homeless and were offered accommodation in Devon, where you funded your habit by supplying drugs.’
Mr Gordon Richings, prosecuting, said Ali was arrested with £180 worth of crack and £195 cash after police saw him supplying a user in a car park in Paignton in October 2017.
Messages on his phone showed him offering over-sized bags of heroin to addicts in Newton Abbot the previous month. He was found with a small amount of cannabis in a Kinder egg when arrested in Queen Street, Newton Abbot in November 2017.
A probation report said Ali had a difficult childhood in the care system and was drawn into drug dealing by his own use of cannabis as a teenager.
He had been a keen footballer before he became involved with drugs and at one time had worked as a cleaner at Wembley Stadium.