A drug dealer who was caught with party bags containing canisters of laughing gas has become the first person to be jailed for possession of the class C drug since it was outlawed.

Thomas Salton, 30, from Brentwood in Essex was found with about 60 small canisters of nitrous oxide known as ‘laughing gas’, 48 one-gram bags of ketamine, and £39,000 in cash when police pulled his Range Rover over on 1 December 2023.

A further 408 nitrous oxide canisters and 965 grams of ketamine were later found at a property Salton was renting 10 miles from his home.

Salton will spend 35 months in prison.

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