A 20-year-old drug dealer who threw a gun and ammo into the street to hide them from police has been jailed for seven years.

Drifter Lorenzo Brooks was caught with heroin and cocaine when Operation Trident detectives raided a house in Miller Road, Croydon, in January this year.

Brooks was arrested and released on bail, but was picked up by police again in April during a separate raid on a flat in Southwark.

Officers found a handgun and magazine of ammunition lying on the ground outside the flats, which forensic examination showed was covered in Brooks’ fingerprints.

He was arrested again for possession of the gun, which he had tried to hide by throwing it out of the rear window, and was found to be carrying more cocaine when he was searched at a nearby police station.

Brooks pleaded guilty at Inner London Crown Court to possession of a handgun and cocaine, and possession of heroin and cocaine with intent to supply.

He was sentenced to a total of seven years.

Detective Constable Sean Adams from Trident, said: “Trident continues to take drugs, guns and importantly gunmen off the streets of London.

“Lorenzo Brooks' guilty plea and subsequent sentence is illustrative of the evidence Trident detectives built up to ensure that another person with a destructive influence on the community has been put away for a considerable amount of time.”