Top Corbyn ally’s son smuggled £2,500 of drugs into festival
... but judge spares him from 4-year jail sentence
THE son of a frontbench Labour MP and close ally of Jeremy Corbyn has been convicted of smuggling drugs into a music festival.
Ishmael Osamor, 29, was caught with a £2,500 haul of ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and cannabis by security staff at last year’s Bestival event in Dorset.
The serving Labour councillor, son of international development spokesman Kate Osamor, was arrested on September 8, two days before 25-year-old model Louella Michie died from a drugs overdose at the same festival. There is no suggestion the two events were linked.
Osamor pleaded guilty to four drugs charges but managed to avoid a four-year prison sentence.
A judge ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work instead.
His mother – the 50-year-old MP for Edmonton, North London – is a member of Mr Corbyn’s inner circle and a vocal social inequality campaigner who has spoken out about ‘racist policing’ and the Government’s ‘failed war on drugs’.
Despite his conviction for serious drugs offences, Osamor has kept his taxpayerfunded job in the Commons, where he works as his mother’s communications officer. He is listed as working for the MP in her most recent register of interests, updated on October 17. The pair live together in Tottenham, North London.
He remains a serving Labour councillor in nearby Haringey having been elected in May in what critics denounced as an aggressive takeover of the council by Momentum-backed supporters of Mr Corbyn. The result triggered a nepotism row because Osamor was selected to stand for the position by his own mother, ousting two long-serving councillors including the former Haringey mayor. Miss Osamor refused to comment on the critidon cism at the time. Her son was awaiting trial at the time of his selection in November last year and subsequent election win. It is not clear if he revealed details of his arrest to voters.
His court case will cause great embarrassment to Miss Osamor, who was this week pictured with Mr Corbyn at a fundraising event. In March, she wrote in a policy paper that the Government’s ‘failed wars on terror and drugs’ had ‘diverted crucial resources away from people’.
She said ministers should focus on issues such as ‘genderbased violence and unsafe cities’ instead. Her Edmonton constituency is one of many suburbs blighted by the county lines epidemic, where criminals recruit youngsters as drug mules to flood rural areas with heroin and crack cocaine.
In April, Mahad Yusuf, 21, a gang member from Edmonton, was convicted of trafficking a 19-year-old girl from North Lon- to Swansea, where he kept her prisoner for two weeks and forced her to sell cocaine.
Drugs offences in Edmonton have increased over the last year. There were 517 reports of drug-related crime between August 2017 and September this year, with year-on-year increases recorded in every ward, according to police statistics.
Osamor admitted three charges of possessing drugs with intent to supply and a fourth charge of possession in a hearing at Bournemouth Crown Court last Friday. He pleaded guilty after prosecutors accepted that he and his friends had clubbed together to buy the drugs and were not intending to sell them to other festival-goers.
He was caught with 30.89g of ecstasy, 7.5g of cocaine, 5.7g of ketamine and 182mg of cannabis with a street value of between £1,690 and £2,500.
The judge said Osamor would have faced up to four years in prison had prosecutors refused to accept his claim that the drugs were for his personal use, and not for profit.
Osamor’s barrister Mohsin Zaidi told the judge: ‘He made a mistake, he knows he is very lucky.’ Judge Stephen Climie told the court: ‘I hope he appreciates he’s very lucky. During unpaid work he will appreciate how privileged he is.
‘He will end up rubbing shoulders with many who have serious addiction and drugs problems who will have had none of the opportunities he has had.’
The judge told Osamor: ‘If this had been a case where you had been found in possession of those drugs with intent to supply for profit, you would be looking at between three and four years in prison.’ He sentenced Osamor to a two-year community order with 200 hours of unpaid work and up to 20 rehabilitation activity days. He also has to pay £400 prosecution costs.
It is the latest controversy to hit the Osamor family. Two years ago, Miss Osamor claimed the 2011 riots were the result of ‘justified’ anger at racist policing. In May, it emerged she had copied large sections of Barack Obama’s 2008 victory speech when addressing constituents after her re-election as MP.
Last night a spokesman for Miss Osamor said: ‘Ishmael has admitted what he did was wrong and apologised.’
Osamor last night resigned his post as deputy cabinet member at Haringey Council but remains a councillor.
‘He knows he is very lucky’