A "dangerous" criminal caught with guns and drugs with a street value of £30,000 has been jailed for 12 years.

Syed Hussain, of Beaufort Close, Chingford, stored cocaine, heroin, a semi-automatic pistol and silencer, a sawn-off shotgun and ammunition in a "corridor-style" cubbyhole.

Police tracked the 31-year-old to a property in Forest Gate on 14 occasions and discovered the stash during a raid.

Officers who later swooped on his Chingford flat in March this year found cocaine worth £3,000, cannabis and the key to the secret room, as well as self-seal bags and £1,600 in cash.

Catherine Farrelly, prosecuting, told the jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court that Hussain was co-ordinating "a serious and organised drug supply operation".

She said: "There could be no possible lawful reason for anyone to have these items.

"The utility room had quite clearly been designed to be used by the occupant of the flat next door but that’s not how it was being used.

"The door connecting the utility room to the flat next door was locked and bolted and there was a fridge in the way of the door.

"Within it they found a handgun with a magazine clip with eight loaded cartridges.

"They also found a silencer designer to be used with the handgun and 12 further rounds of ammunition."

Hussain told police the drugs had "nothing to do with drug dealing", but a jury convicted of him of eight offences on September 7.

Speaking following the sentencing yesterday, Detective Constable James Barber of the Trident Gang Crime Command, said: "Hussain has without question accumulated an astonishing quantity of weaponry and drugs, determining himself to be a dangerous individual.

"There is no doubt that Hussain had every intention to cause serious harm with these items in his possession. Our officers deserve huge credit for this intervention which followed a skilled and detailed investigation. Today's sentencing leaves Londoners far safer with this criminal off the streets."

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