A DRUG dealer was collared when his stash floated to the surface of the canal he had just been pushed in by a policeman.

Darius Francis, aged 20, had bolted when approached by a plain clothes officer in Sainsbury's petrol station.

When eventually cornered on a towpath after a chase through Oldbury the police officer pushed Francis into the canal fearing he would have a gun pulled on him.

When floundering in the water white powder begin to surface and the police recovered 66 wraps of crack cocaine and 10 of heroin.

The illegal drugs were valued at £790 while Francis, of Albright Street, was also found to be in possession of £200 in cash, said Alex Warren, prosecuting.

He told Wolverhampton Crown Court that Francis had been a passenger in a Peugeot car when the vehicle was approached by a plain clothes police officer at Sainsbury’s petrol station in Oldbury town centre.

The officer was working on an unrelated inquiry and when he revealed he was a policeman Francis panicked and fled on foot

He was chased to the canal and it was when he reached into one of his socks that the officer pushed him into the water.

Francis admitted possessing the two controlled drugs with intent to supply and he was sent to a Young Offenders Institution for 32 months by Judge Nicholas Webb.

He told the dealer he had been caught with a significant amount of drugs and only an immediate custodial sentence was appropriate.

Harpreet Sandhu defending told the court that Francis had been told to sell the drugs to clear a £450 cannabis debt.

Mr Sandhu said: “This was not his own operation but he was going to benefit from it to the extent that his debt would have been wiped out.”

He said that since his arrest Francis had severed all ties with his old crowd adding: “The shock of the inevitable period of detention will ensure he follows a very different path when he is released.”