Dealer who hid drugs inside himself jailed (From Daily Echo)

Ali Reza Beigy-Hadad jailed at Southampton Crown Court after Hampshire police found him hiding heroin

12:09pm Monday 7th January 2013 in Crime By Jon Reeve, Education Reporter

A SOUTHAMPTON drug dealer who tried to hide £300-worth of heroin inside himself has been jailed after being held in custody until the drugs were discovered.

Police successfully applied for extra powers to hold and monitor Ali Reza Beigy-Hadad for up to eight days, after he was arrested in September.

Detectives found more than £300 in cash and a list showing his latest deals on the 37-year-old when he was arrested on Onslow Road, Bevois Valley, last September.

Officers working on Hampshire police’s drug crackdown, Operation Fortress, found £400-worth of cannabis and some heroin at his home in nearby Cranbury Avenue, but after a strip search in custody they believed he had hidden more drugs inside himself.

Beigy-Hadad has become the first person convicted through the police’s use of the extra powers in the Criminal Justice Act 1988 to detain suspected drug dealers.

He pleaded guilty last month to possession of class A drugs with intent to supply. He has now been sentenced at Southampton Crown Court and jailed for two years.

DC Mark Edis said: “When we initially took Mr Beigy-Hadad to court we successfully applied to hold and monitor him in police custody for a further eight days. After four days, we retrieved the drugs he’d hidden inside him himself: several deals of heroin with an approximate £300 street value.”

“To anyone thinking about secreting drugs in this way to try and avoid detection the message is simple: there’s no hiding it! We will hold you for as long as it takes to get the goods so you may as well hand them over straight away.”