A former bouncer claimed he was pressured into selling cocaine after being told he owed money to dealers for seizing drugs from customers.
Lee Honeyman was caught twice in a week with the class A drug in his car by the same officer.
Honeyman, who used to work at a bar in South Shields, said he'd been made to do it after confiscating drugs from a group of people in his former employment.
But now the 36-year-old, of Penman Place, North Shields, has been jailed for three years at Newcastle Crown Court.
He was first spotted in a Vauxhall Vectra in September 2018 in South Shields and a PC was suspicious that the car might have had false registration plates.
Two days later the officer went to Honeyman's street and saw the car and had it uplifted.
Inside the vehicle were two plastic Kinder eggs containing 13 bags of cocaine and there was also an extendable baton and £110 cash.
Less than a week later police found a Kinder egg containing 11 small bags of cocaine in a car he abandoned at the Tyne Tunnel toll booth when he saw the same officer approach.
The total value of the cocaine that was seized was £960.
The court heard when his iPhone was examined, police found messages "indicative of the supply of class A drugs at street level".
Honeyman admitted two charges of possessing cocaine with intent to supply and one of possessing an offensive weapon.
Recorder David Gordon told him: "You said you were a doorman in South Shields and you claim to have caught a group of people with drugs in a bar you were working in and confiscated the drugs from them.
"Thereafter, drug dealers alleged you owed them money for the drugs you had seized and started to put pressure on you.
"It was in that context you became involved in this illicit and illegal trade in cocaine on their behalf.
"Clearly you did take part in the supply chain in relation to these class A drugs.
"Maybe that is how you became involved but at no stage did you go to the police for assistance, which is something you might have done.
"You say you were threatened yet you didn't seek any help and simply went along with their suggestion that you pay off your debt to them by trading these horrible drugs on the street of North East England."
The court heard Honeyman, who has around 50 previous convictions, had a troubled childhood and is carer for his partner who has health problems.
His barrister said there had been some "intimidation and pressure".
