A crack cocaine dealer arrested in Brighton has been forced to pay back £130,000 of his ill-gotten gains.

Yafet Berhane, 28, was ordered to make the payment at Lewes Crown Court yesterday.(June8) The convicted dealer had already pleaded to seven counts of supplying crack cocaine on December 22 last year.

In March he also pleaded guilty to money laundering and was sentenced to a total of five years in prison.

Police said that between January 21 and May 8 last year, Berhane had, on seven occasions, supplied an undercover police with crack cocaine.

He was arrested in Brighton on May 6 and a passenger in his Mini car was spotted trying to throw away a package containing cocaine and heroin.

The car was seized by police.

While Berhane was on bail, the Metropolitan Police searched a safety deposit box in London in which £122,000 in cash had been deposited by Berhane.

At the confiscation hearing yesterday, the 28-year-old conceded that the £122,000 was from drug trafficking but claimed the car was not his and not bought by him.

But Judge Kemp decided that Berhane’s benefit from drug trafficking was £131,367.75 and that the car should be sold and added to the total.

Berhane was given two months to pay or face a further three years imprisonment.

Detective Chief Inspector Ian Pollard, Brighton and Hove Police, said: “This is an excellent result and demonstrates the determination of Brighton and Hove Police to disrupt and dismantle drug traffickers in the city.”