A PAIR of drug dealers who flaunted their earnings by taking pictures with expensive bottles of champagne and counting cash have been jailed for more than seven years.

Shibhu Sultan, 24, and Neermal Nanjilal, 23, were spotted on August 23, 2018, carrying out drug deals from a BMW in Winchester.

Winchester Crown Court was told last Friday that police were alerted, and the BMW was spotted heading for the M3.

Prosecutor Brian Stork said: “They had clearly sold out because no drugs were recovered from the car and they must have been heading back to London where they were living.”

Sultan was searched and he was found with £1,660, he also had a Nokia burner phone which contained messages consistent with Class A drug dealing. Electric scales were discovered in the car which tested positive for opiates.

The pair were arrested, but on May 9, 2019, they were back in Winchester and seen to be carrying out a drug deal.

The car was stopped a short distance from Worthy Lane by police, Sultan, of Poplar, London, was found with a lock knife in his socks and baseball bats in the boot.

They had previously been seen in the city on one day in July 2018 when they were stopped with around £4,000 worth of cocaine and heroin and were arrested.

They were later charged with conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine and possession of criminal property. Sultan pleaded guilty at magistrates’ court, but Nanjilal, of Poplar, London, did not admit the charges until the first day of his trial.

The court heard that Nanjilal’s phone had a photo of Sultan counting a significant amount of cash, and another which showed one of the defendants holding a bottle of Moët & Chandon Champagne.

Mr Stork added: “However either of these two young men may have become involved in drug dealing they were certainly wholeheartedly and enthusiastically involved in the sale of Class A drugs.”

In mitigation, Sultan’s barrister Libby Anderson told the court: “He became involved in drug dealing initially to pay off a cannabis debt that he had to the tune of about £1,000.

“Having become involved in drug dealing in order to pay off that debt he then became accountable for the drugs and cash that were seized.

“Essentially he was in far too deep to get out of it at that stage.”

Nanjilal’s barrister Brent Martin said that his client’s position in the operation was that he was to be “paid a salary there would be no splitting” of the profits.

The court was told that Sultan had signed a loan for Nanjilal and he then agreed to become a driver for his operation.

“The pre-sentence report says there may have been some pressure and coercion. Mr Nanjilal did not have any influence on those above the chain, Mr Sultan was the driving force.”

Judge Susan Evans jailed Sultan for 44 months and Nanjilal for 48 months.