Two 'high-intellect' Bulgarian drug dealers jailed for combined seven years for peddling cocaine in Harrogate

Angel Angelov and Tsonko Peev, both 25, were running drugs between Leeds and Harrogate but their illicit enterprise came to an abrupt halt when police stopped a battered Vauxhall Corsa on Leeds Road and found 20g of cocaine, York Crown Court heard.

Angelov, the main player, was on bail at the time, having been arrested less than a month earlier when a police officer stopped a car on the A61 at Harewood and found over 20 packets of cocaine with a “street value” of up to £1,000.

Prosecutor Glenn Parsons said that during the first stop on November 10 last year, police found just under 15g of cocaine.

The officer also found a folding lock knife on Angelov’s keyring and £200 cash in his pockets.

He was arrested and on the way to Harrogate Police Station his phone was “ringing constantly”.

He later told an officer he had put “the wrong trousers on that morning and that anything (found) in those trousers belonged to somebody else”, but later changed his story, saying the drugs were for his own use.

Angelov, who didn’t have a driving licence, claimed he had no job and had arrived in the United Kingdom with only with £1,500 savings.

“He refused to provide the PIN number for his phone,” said Mr Parsons.

Angelov was released on bail pending further investigations but on December 5, less than a month later, he was arrested again and this time Peev was with him.

“Peev was driving a Vauxhall Corsa in a poor state of repair,” added Mr Parsons.

Police pulled the car over and one of the officers immediately recognised Angelov from his arrest in November.

“When police checked (Peev’s) licence plate it was registered to addresses in both Leeds and Harrogate,” said Mr Parsons.

Both men were arrested and taken into custody where they were searched.

Officers could find nothing on Angelov until they noticed “bulging” in the lining of his Gilet top whose lining had been sewn up.

Officers tore the lining open and found 20 bags of cocaine. Peev’s Corsa was searched where officers found a further 11 bags of cocaine.

Peev told officers he had been in Harrogate to visit the Christmas fair and had picked Angelov up “from the side of the road”.

Mr Parsons said both men played a “significant” role in “transporting dealer-sized bags (of cocaine) between Leeds and Harrogate”.

Angelov, from Leeds, ultimately admitted two counts of possessing a Class A drug with intent to supply, driving while disqualified and possessing a blade.

Peev, of no fixed address but with connections to Harrogate, admitted one count of possessing cocaine with intent to supply.

They appeared for sentence on February 7 knowing their fates were sealed.

Defence barrister Alasdair Campbell, for Angelov, said his client, who moved to Yorkshire from Surrey, had been in the country since 2016 when he enrolled at a university to study international management.

“Unfortunately, he had a cocaine habit and that needed to be funded,” added Mr Campbell.

“He understands that at some stage he is likely to be deported back to Bulgaria.”

Harry Bradford, for Peev, said his client was an economic migrant and an “educated man” who had left “one of the poorer areas” of Bulgaria to look for work, initially in the United States for a motocross company, but in autumn last year the American authorities refused to grant him a visa and he moved to the UK where he initially found work as an Uber taxi driver.

According to Peev, he arrived at Luton Airport on November 9 – about four weeks before his arrest.

He got into drug dealing after moving from Luton to Leeds and working for a food-delivery company, where a customer asked him if he’d “like another job”.

Mr Bradford said Peev was the driver or courier in the drug racket and was only involved for a short period of time, ferrying drugs to Harrogate and operating at street level.

Judge Sean Morris described Angelov’s role as “determined drug dealing” which continued even after his initial arrest.

Angelov, formerly of Southfield Mount, Armley, was jailed for five years and three months.

Peev was jailed for two years and three months.