A drug supplier nicknamed "Cosmic Samurai" has been ordered to pay back £78,000 after arranging high value deals.

Marcus Brookfield, from Paddock Wood, used the heavily encrypted messaging service EncroChat to buy blocks of cocaine worth tens of thousands of pounds per kilogram.

Law authorities in France and Netherlands cracked the illegal service, and they were able to capture data from thousands of devices from across Europe that they then shared with the National Crime Agency.

Further investigation established the extent of the offences committed by Brookfield, who went by "Cosmic Samurai".

The 48-year-old, formerly of Forest Road, Paddock Wood, was jailed for eight years in March 2022.

A review of his finances found he had made nearly £500,000 from the criminal conduct, and he had assets totalling around £78,000 that he had available to pay back.

This includes a share of equity in a house, money, and other items seized such as watches and gold coins.

"Drugs ruin people’s lives and Brookfield made a significant amount of money off of their misery..."

The assets were made subject of a confiscation order at Maidstone Crown Court on Friday, so he now has three months to pay the money back or will spend a further year in prison and still have to pay.

Detective Inspector David Godfrey of the Economic Crime Unit said: "Marcus Brookfield may have referred to himself as a samurai but he had a less than fighting chance of keeping the identified assets earned through the harmful sale of Class A drugs.

"This result does not signal the end of our interest in his finances, as the Proceeds of Crime Act allows us to continue to seize any further assets he comes into possession of in the future until the entire half a million pounds he earned is paid back.

"Drugs ruin people’s lives and Brookfield made a significant amount of money off of their misery.

"We take a very dim view of such offending and will not hesitate to bring offenders like him to justice."