Dartford drug dealer Joe Eastwood, 29, has been jailed for three years and four months after sending mass marketing texts advertising heroin and crack cocaine to users across the town.
Eastwood, a convicted criminal, was on licence for previous offences when detectives identified him as the operator of a drugs line that blasted out bulk messages between 12 March and 21 May 2026. He had been released from prison only weeks earlier.
The messages, which advertised heroin and crack cocaine for sale, were discovered on a mobile phone seized during an unrelated arrest. Enquiries traced the operation back to Eastwood, and the line fell silent after 21 May — the same day he fled from officers on patrol in Ash Road, Hawley.
Heroin and crack found hidden in fishing gilet
Officers later executed a warrant at Eastwood’s home on the same road. Inside an outbuilding, they found a large quantity of heroin and crack cocaine concealed in a fishing gilet, along with a set of scales and clingfilm.
They also recovered a handwritten note listing names and phone numbers, later confirmed as recipients of the marketing messages. Eastwood’s fingerprints were found on the note, giving detectives a direct link between the dealer and the people targeted by his texts.
A review of the drugs line revealed it had also been used to make personal calls to his friends and family — a careless slip that further tied him to the operation.
Guilty plea and jail sentence
Eastwood was charged on 1 June with being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin between 12 March and 21 May. He pleaded guilty the following day.
On 17 September, he was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court to three years and four months in prison.
Police: he tried to restart the network weeks after release
Detective Inspector Rob Hemsley, of Kent Police, said Eastwood had believed he could restart a drugs line just weeks after being released from prison on licence for a similar offence — and that officers had put a stop to his attempts to relaunch the dealing network in the Dartford area.
The conviction is the latest success for detectives targeting organised drug supply across London and the South East, following cases such as the jailing of a county lines dealer whose public Wi-Fi blunder exposed his operation.
Eastwood’s fingerprints on the note and the phone records from the drugs line formed the backbone of the case against him.
