Southend Echo

Two drug dealers who attempted to acquire a handgun have been jailed following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.

The Taurus self-loading pistol was intercepted and seized by Border Force officers at Stansted Airport on July 27, 2023.

It was hidden inside the packaging for a metallic safe box, along with two empty 9mm magazines.

McNeil Colly, 48, from south London, and Keston Redhead, 35, an asylum seeker from Trinidad and Tobago, were found guilty of importation of a firearm and conspiracy to import class A drugs following a seven-week trial.

Andrew Edhouse, 64 and his partner, Carol Streatham, 66, were hit with an eviction notice from their static home on Canvey’s Thorney Bay Village and were ordered to leave by October 22.

The couple, after failing to move into a flat in Basildon, were place in the Campanile Hotel with no kitchen, fridge or microwave by Castle Point Council – something they appealed against as they feared being forced to pay themselves for their stay.

A 34-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man have been arrested on suspicion of murder after the fire in south London.