A MAN has been jailed for six years after a loaded handgun was found under his bed in a caravan in Basildon.

Specialist officers arrested Gjekson Pusi, 34, after executing a search warrant on an address in Laindon on 23 May.

Officers from the Essex Police Serious Organised Crime Unit and a police search team recovered a Glock self-loading pistol, with live ammunition in its magazine, hidden beneath a bed in a caravan. A firearms officer at the scene made it safe.

More than £6,000 in cash was found by a police dog inside a coat and a further £180 located in the wardrobe.

Rocks of cocaine were found in the kitchen – alongside weighing scales and three mobile phones – and bags of cocaine and a black bin-liner full of cannabis were located in a second caravan.

Pusi's gun.

A cannabis cultivation was discovered inside a trailer on the site, together with nine individual bags of freshly-harvested cannabis bud and industrial amounts of growing equipment were found in two outbuildings.

After the hearing at Basildon Crown Court on Wednesday, 13 July, Detective Sergeant James Rafiq said: "Pusi has been jailed for six years, which shows how seriously the judge viewed this case. We don't tolerate criminals who use guns or who sell or distribute drugs and cause misery in our communities.

"Our streets are now safer because a dangerous man will be behind bars for a considerable amount of time and another gun and a substantial amount of drugs will be destroyed."

The court was told that Pusi's DNA had been found on the gun but that, when interviewed by detectives, he had refused to comment.

Pusi, of Hartington Street, Derby, was sentenced to six years' imprisonment for possession of a handgun. He was also jailed for 12 months for possession of ammunition and for six months for possession of adapted blank firing ammunition, both sentences to run concurrently.

He was also jailed for two years for production of cannabis, six months for possession of cocaine and six months for possession of criminal property (the recovered cash) under the Proceeds of Crime Act, all sentences again to run concurrently.

Pusi had admitted all the offences. The judge made orders for the forfeiture and destruction of the firearm, ammunition, drugs and equipment. The cash will be donated to a local charity chosen by the court after an order was made under the Misuse of Drugs Act for it to be forfeited, too.