'Mass marketing' drug dealer jailed

Diontai Simpson was sentenced at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday

A drug dealer who used "mass marketing" tactics to sell drugs has been jailed for two and a half years.

Derbyshire Police said Diontai Simpson sent out "three to four messages per day" to prospective customers in Derby and Manchester.

The 23-year-old, previously of Venwood Road in Prestwich, Manchester, admitted three counts of supplying cannabis, cocaine and heroin.

He was sentenced at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday.

Derbyshire Police said Simpson was arrested by officers who stopped a suspicious vehicle on Osmaston Road in Derby on 21 November last year.

They found Class B drugs in the vehicle, and after searching an address, they discovered cannabis, cocaine, cash "and drug dealing paraphernalia such as weighing scales".

The force said that when police carried out a second warrant at the same address in April, the defendant "tried to evade capture by climbing out of a bedroom window".

Officers found a mobile phone that had been used to sell drugs at the property, and Simpson was arrested again after returning.

PC Nathan Lawler, from the force's criminal exploitation team, said: "Drugs have a devastating impact on our communities, and by supplying these illegal substances, Simpson was very much part of that problem."