A convicted drug dealer from Thamesmead has had nearly £16,000 confiscated after police found the cash at his house.

Police raided Awal Tahiru’s flat in Wolvercote Road on May 22 last year after a package destined for the same address, was intercepted five days earlier at Heathrow and found to contain more than 14kg of cannabis.

At the 37-year-old’s home they found 1.2kg of cannabis inside a sports bag in the fridge and £15,600 in cash hidden in a large suitcase at the bottom of a wardrobe.

On January 30 he was convicted of possession with intent to supply Class B drugs and possession of criminal property and was sentenced to a year in prison.

The Crown Prosecution Service decided not to proceed with a charge of importing drugs in relation to the package found at Heathrow.

At Woolwich Crown Court today a confiscation order for £15,657.60 was issued against Tahiru.

Acting Detective Chief Inspector Ann-Marie Waller, from the Criminal Finance Team at based at Lewisham police station, said: “Tahiru was unable to offer any plausible explanation for where or how he had obtained this money.

“He claimed the money had been given to him by an unknown person he met in Elephant and Castle in order to buy laptops for a family member, but was unable to offer up any evidence to corroborate the story.

“Given the amount of drugs we found in his property it was more than likely this cash was linked to criminal activity and the court agreed with this and duly confiscated the cash that was seized.”