A DRUG dealer who threw a package of heroin out of a window when police raided his flat - only for it to land at the feet of an officer waiting outside in Worcester - has been locked up for five years.

Amani Lynch, 20, was in his second floor flat in Nibley Close, Warndon, Worcester, when police broke in at 8.15am on November 20 last year, Hugh O'Brien Quinn, prosecuting, told Worcester Crown Court.

He was in the bedroom in one of the twin beds with a friend he had met in the city, who also had an interest in drugs.

Mr O'Brien Quinn said Lynch had met the teenager, who was then aged 16, and he had either become a willing partner or he had enlisted him as a runner.

A police dog handler told the court he had been outside in the courtyard when he heard his fellow officers breaking in through the door and seconds later an orange packet flew past his head and landed nearby.

He took it into the flat and it was found to contain 21 wraps of heroin.

Lynch denied possession of the drugs with intent to supply - but the jury found him guilty of the offence.

The court heard he had been in the flat with his friend the night before smoking cannabis.

Mr O'Brien Quinn said they had obtained some heroin on the day and had wrapped it in 0.1gram deals in cigarette papers and then in a layer for plastic cut from an orange Sainsbury's bag.

Lynch's fingerprints were found on the cigarette paper packet and on the bag.

He said he had not been involved in dealing and his fingerprints were there because it was his flat and he had been using the papers to smoke cannabis.

The court heard Lynch, a Londoner, had been relocated to Worcester following his release from jail for a previous drug dealing offence.

He is also on bail accused of a murder in London, which still has to come to trial.

Charles Burton, defending said Lynch had tried to turn his life around but had been moved away from his London roots to an "alien" place when he was moved to Worcester.

Judge Robert Juckes QC, sending Lynch to a young offenders' institution for five years, said: "You are still only 20 - you have an astonishing record for dealing drugs."

He added that a significant proportion of crime dealt with in the courts was committed by people who wanted to get money to feed their drug addiction so dealing had to be treated seriously, although he accepted Lynch was caught with a "relatively small amount" of heroin.

Charles Burton, defending said Lynch had tried to turn his life around but had been moved away from his London roots to an "alien" place when he was moved to Worcester.