A MAN who diced up a fellow drug dealer and then dumped his body in four bags in a canal has been jailed for almost 19 years.

Aziz El-Gharras, 31, from Camden, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court today to the murder of Jamaican national Marvin Gentles in June 2005.

Gentles, from Northolt, gave El-Gharras drugs to sell, but instead he used it himself.

Gentles, street named "Face", tracked down his drug runner at his estate flat, where he was stabbed to death by El-Gharras.

He then cut his body into pieces and put it in bags which he dumped in the nearby Regents Canal.

El-Gharras returned to his flat and attempted to clean up with bleach, however this didn't work so he set fire to the flat to destroy the evidence.

He then booked himself into a hotel and claimed to social services that he was homeless.

On June 24 a man walking along the towpath of Regents Canal, Primrose Hill, found Gentle's remains in a bag between Primrose Bridge and Macclesfield Bridge.

Following investigations El-Gharras was arrested on July 30.

DI Tim Dobson, of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command, said: "I re-iterate the comments by the judge that this is another example of the evils that can be brought about by those who deal and use hard drugs.

"Despite strenuous efforts by El-Gharras to hide what he had done, it was thanks to the hard work and dedication of officers from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command that he was captured and put before the court."