Drug dealer arrested in Italy after exchanging cocaine for stolen live lamb

The man's home was raided by police after a farmer reported his lamb missing

The lamb was reportedly just about to be killed and eaten as police arrived at the property (file photo)

A drug dealer in Italy was arrested after allegedly trading two bags of cocaine for a stolen live lamb.

The lamb was offered in exchange for one gram of cocaine by a teenager who had stolen it from his father’s farm, with the drug dealer described by his lawyer as being so desperately hungry that he took the lamb as payment, intending to kill and eat it.

The drug dealer is thought to have asked for 150 euros in exchange for the cocaine, at which point the teenager is alleged to have offered the animal as payment.

“My client was so in need of something to eat that he was ready to swap drugs for a lamb,” the man’s lawyer said, according to Today.it.

“In all my time as a lawyer I've never seen anything like it.”

However, after the teenager’s father reported the lamb as stolen, police raided the drug dealer’s home – reportedly finding substantial quantities of illegal substances, along with a stolen laptop and a confused farm animal.

According to the lawyer, the lamb was just about to be killed and eaten as police arrived at the property, and has since been removed by police and temporarily given to local authorities.