Two mobile phones revealed the incredible amount of business two drug dealers were doing.

The phones were discovered in a car after the two men were arrested in Stacey's Corner, Basildon - a drugs hotspot. As police drove them in a patrol car to Basildon police station for questioning an officer followed behind in the dealers' car.

During the trip the two mobile phones were ringing constantly. In half an hour one phone received 42 calls and the other 14, Basildon Crown Court heard.

The officer said a typical call was an unknown voice, asking: "Can you do me a bag (a wrap of drugs) and can you sort me out?" This was taken to mean drug deals, said Margaret Dodd, prosecuting.

She told how Tremaine Gittens, 21, and Khalil Farah, 19, had driven from London's East End to push drugs. She said police swooped when the defendants' car was stopped in Timberlog Lane.

Judge Philip Clegg interrupted to say this was "a well known area for drug dealing". Miss Dodd went on to say that in the police operation Gittens was seen at the wheel of the car and when passenger Farah spotted them, he ran off.

He was later seen to throw a package in a bush which was recovered by police.

It contained 13 wraps of heroin with a street value of £400. In the car, a further 16 wraps of cocaine was discovered, valued at £78.

They admitted possessing the class A drugs with intent to supply.

The case against Gittens, of East Ham, was adjourned for further reports and Farah was sent to a young offenders' institution for four years.

Farah, from Hackney, was said to have committed the offence while on licence from a previous sentence for robbery. However, the licence period will not be added to his sentence.

He was told by Judge Clegg: "Trading in class A drugs is a very serious offence. It seems you got talked into this after seeing your friends in nice things which you could not afford. Once you got involved, you could not get out of it."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.