North Yorkshire drug dealers Angel Angelov and Tsonko Peev jailed

North Yorkshire Police caught banned driver Angel Angelov, 25, on roads near Harrogate with cocaine twice within one month, said Glenn Parsons, prosecuting.

The first time he was driving, the second time, he was a passenger in a car driven by Tsonko Peev, 25.

On both occasions police found cocaine worth hundreds of pounds on Angelov or in the car, York Crown Court heard.

• Read about a drug dealer who challenged North Yorkshire Police to catch him - and they did. 

“You knew what you were doing,” the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, said as he sentenced Angelov and Peev. “Class A drugs, all drugs, create crime because people have to pay people like you. People burgle houses and rob people to pay dealers, so to prison you must go.”

The bags of cocaine found in the mint tin by police officers (Image: North Yorkshire Police)

Angelov, of Southfield Mount, Armley, Leeds, pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing cocaine with intent to supply it committed on November 10, 2022, and December 5, 2022, carrying a knife on the first occasion he was stopped and driving whilst disqualified. He was jailed for five years and three months.

His barrister Matthew Harding said he expected to be deported when he is released.

Angelov is a Bulgarian national who came to the UK in 2016, expecting to study international management at university. But his cocaine habit led to him “being used” by a dealer to supply drugs, said his barrister.

The lock knife recovered by police when Angel Angelov was searched (Image: North Yorkshire Police)

Peev, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing cocaine with intent to supply it and was jailed for 27 months.

His barrister Harry Bradford said he was an “economic migrant” from one of the poorer parts of Bulgaria who had worked in the USA before coming to the UK a month before he was arrested.

He had been doing gig work delivering food when he was offered a second similar job during which he was “pressurised” into delivering drugs.

PC George Frost, from the Operation Expedite team, said: “Following a swift investigation, two drug dealers have been taken off the streets of Harrogate, along with thousands of pounds worth of Class A drugs.

“Dealers like Angelov and Peev seek to exploit the vulnerabilities of users and their addictions for their own selfish financial gain. The effects of drug dealing and drug use are felt far and wide, leading to violence, anti-social behaviour and acquisitive crime.

“I hope the people of Harrogate and wider North Yorkshire feel reassured by the result of the investigation and the jail sentences. We are committed to protecting the vulnerable in our communities, and are working night and day to keep drug dealers out of the area.”