A county lines drug dealer who was found with nearly 50 wraps of heroin and cocaine in a popular Ipswich town centre park has been jailed for 28 months.

Sentencing 22-year-old Evaristo Mendes, Judge Martyn Levett said he had gone to Christchurch Park, which he described as a “drug dealing hotspot” to look for “crack heads” to sell drugs to.

Judge Levett described Christchurch Park as “magnificent” and said it was used by families with children as well as being the venue for charity events and the annual Remembrance Day service.

“Drug dealing in these kind of areas ruins them,” said the judge.

He said Mendes had travelled to Ipswich from London a week before his arrest to carry out a reconnaissance of the area to find the best place to sell drugs with the aim of getting money to pay for a deposit on a flat.

He said Mendes had told a probation officer that one of his friends had been going abroad and had asked Mendes to take the drugs off him for £200 and he had thought he could make “easy” money from them.

Jailing Mendes for 28 months Judge Levett said the sentence would allow him to start a mechanical engineering degree at university in September next year.

Mendes, 22, of High Street, Thornton Heath, admitted possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to supply in April last year.

The court heard he was found in possession of 21 wraps of crack cocaine and 28 wraps of heroin and £264 cash which Judge Levett said was the cash equivalent of 20 wraps of class A drugs.

Natasha Nair for Mendes said her client had been frank with the police about what he’d been doing and intended to do when he was apprehended.

She said the offence was more than a year old and Mendes hadn’t come to the attention of the police since then.

She said he had good prospects at university and was a promising footballer.