Southend: Drug dealer jailed thanks to Op Raptor

A drug dealer’s been jailed for more than seven years following work by our specialist team which dismantles county lines drug gangs.

Thirty-three year-old Sindujan Chandran was identified as the holder of the ‘Big D’ drug line, which operated in Southend since May 2022.

Our Op Raptor team became aware of the line during a separate investigation into an unrelated county line.

In November of 2022, they discovered messages advertising the sale of crack cocaine and heroin.

Over the course of the next five months, officers were able establish the messages had come from a particular mobile phone number and trace that back to Chandran.

They were also able to establish the Chandran had topped up that mobile phone number with credit, and where he had topped it up, confirming this via studying CCTV.

They were also able to trace his movements in setting up and executing drug deals.

In April of this year a warrant was executed at an address in Southend where it was known Chandran stayed, and mobile phones, a ‘tick list’ of clients, and trainers he was seen wearing in CCTV, were all discovered and seized.

Chandran, of Bycroft Road, Southall, had fled to Lutterworth in Leicestershire but was arrested there in June.

He was charged with being concerned in the supply of heroin and being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine.

He pleaded guilty at Basildon Crown Court on 27 July and, at the same court on Tuesday 22 August, was jailed for seven years and four months.

Detective Sergeant Rob Maile, from the Op Raptor team, said:

“Drugs are a scourge on our society, ruining lives and destroying communities.

“Sindujan Chandran was responsible for trying to flood the streets of Southend with this poison.

“Through a meticulous investigation, piecing together phone data and other information, we were able to establish he was leading the drug line.

“Due to the thoroughness of our investigation and the evidence we were able to build against him, he was left with no option but to admit his guilt.

“He’ll now spend the foreseeable future behind bars.”

DS Maile added: “This result shows that if you deal drugs in Essex, we will identify you and we will bring you to justice.

“If you think you can come to our county and exploit vulnerable people, making money off misery, think again.”