A MAN was forced into drug dealing after being unwillingly trafficked to Sussex, he said.

Romeo Vrapi was jailed for four years and three months after being found guilty of a string of drugs-related offences.

Police officers spotted the 26-year-old carrying out a suspected drug deal in an alleyway.

They arrested him the following day and raided his home, where they discovered wads of cash amounting to more than £1,300 as well as three wraps of cocaine and two wraps of cannabis.

Inside a locked small black suitcase, officers also found a false ID card, more than a kilogram of cannabis and 170 grams of cocaine.

Originally from Albania, Vrapi told investigators he had been deceived by others to come to the UK. Then, when he arrived, he was trafficked from London to East Sussex where he was compelled to sell drugs because of threats to his family.

Detectives referred the case to the Home Office and Crown Prosecution Service, with the former ruling that he was “likely to be a victim of trafficking for exploitation”.

But the CPS decided there were “compelling reasons to prosecute”.

In December he was found guilty by a jury at Lewes Crown Court and on February 6 he was sentenced.

Vrapi was convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to supply, possession of cannabis with intent to supply, possession of criminal property and possession of a fake ID.