TWO men “caught red-handed” with drugs in their car have been jailed at Bradford Crown Court.
Murtaza Qureshi was locked up for 39 months and Ayman Javed got 30 months for dealing in cocaine and cannabis.
Prosecutor Austin Newman told the court that police who stopped and searched a Toyota being driven on Allerton Road in Bradford by Qureshi at 7.20pm on June 6, 2022, found cocaine and cannabis inside a bag hidden in a secret compartment above a rear wheel arch void.
The drugs – 29g of cannabis and 21 small bags of high-purity cocaine – were estimated to be worth more than £600.
More than £400 in cash was also found in the car along with calling cards advertising a drugs line plus five mobile phones, some of which were found to contain chats and messages “indicative of drugs supply”.
Qureshi and Javed, his passenger, were both arrested and interviewed. Qureshi denied hiring the car or knowing anything about the drugs. Javed answered “no comment”.
On August 9, 2022, Qureshi, who had been released under investigation, was driving a Mercedes when he was stopped by police on the entry slip road to the M606 at Bradford. Also in the car was Affan Sohail.
Officers searched the car and found a quarter of a kilogramme of cannabis in a black plastic carrier bag worth more than £2,000. A fingerprint on the bag was found to belong to another man, Arslan Shabir, from the West Midlands.
Mobile phones were found in the car. Some contained “a considerable number” of messages and chats related to drugs supply that indicated those involved had “an operational or management function”.
One message chain related to cannabis sales in the Birmingham area.
Mr Newman said Sohail was responsible for sourcing cannabis through his contacts with Shabir in Birmingham, who he described as “a wholesale purveyor” of cannabis.
Both men were arrested. They pleaded guilty on the day of trial to possession with intent to supply Class A and Class B drugs.
On March 11 this year Shabir went voluntarily to Solihull police station and was arrested. He later pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cannabis.
Sentencing Qureshi and Javed, Mr Recorder Anthony Hawks said they had been “caught red-handed street dealing” in Class A and Class B drugs.
He said: “You must understand that when people involve themselves in dealing Class A drugs in the way that you both chose to do, then immediate sentences of imprisonment are inevitable.”
Addressing Qureshi he said: “Your position is aggravated by the fact that you didn’t learn your lesson when you were arrested in June of 2022. You chose to continue involving yourself in the drugs trade with the result that you were caught with a large amount of cannabis.”
Qureshi, 24, of Victor Terrace, Bradford, and Javed, 24, of Leamington Street, Bradford, each received a two-and-a-half-year sentence of imprisonment for possession with intent to supply cocaine plus 18 months for dealing cannabis, to run concurrently.
Qureshi received an extra nine months, to be served consecutively, for his second offence, making a total of 39 months or three years and three months.
Sohail, 20, of Coniston Grove, Bradford, was handed 12 months in a young offender institution suspended for 12 months.
Shabir, 31, of Marshall Lake Road, Solihull, received a 12-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months.
Both were ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work
Recorder Hawks ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs, paraphernalia, and mobile phones.
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