Dealer jailed after addicts flag down undercover police car
DRUG addicts who unwittingly flagged down a car driven by undercover police officers helped get their dealer locked up.
Plain-clothes officers were patrolling in an unmarked car on the Aquarias estate in Hulme when a group of men came to their attention, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Prosecutors said that due to their behaviour, the officers thought they were drug addicts. One of the men, wearing a camouflaged jacket, walked up to the window of the unmarked police car after it stopped.
But the man soon realised they were police officers and walked away, prosecutor David Lees said.
The officers suspected the group were waiting for a dealer to arrive in a car. About five minutes later, a green Ford Focus being driven by 20-year-old Mohaned Mustafa parked up on the estate. The officers watched on as an ‘exchange’ took place between the two. The other man walked away but officers blocked in Mustafa’s car and searched it. They noticed there was an ‘exaggerated bulge’ in Mustafa’s tracksuit bottoms, the court heard.
An officer pulled at the waistband and two ‘plastic pots’ containing drugs fell out. One included 23 wraps of crack cocaine, worth about £460, and 14 wraps of heroin, worth about £140. He also had £231 in cash.
Mustafa was arrested and answered ‘no comment’ when questioned by police.
The court heard that last year he received a two-year sentence for possession with intent to supply MDMA. After being released on licence in January, Mustafa said he began dealing class A drugs to pay off a cannabis debt.
Defending, Isobel Thomas said Mustafa had been trying to find legitimate work but turned to drug dealing to try to settle his debt.
She said Mustafa thinks he has ‘wasted’ some of his life by drug dealing, and that he wants to live crime-free in future.
Judge Michael Leeming sentenced him to three years and eight months in a young offenders institution.
The judge said: “This was class A street dealing, and for the second time. You were plainly motivated by financial advantage.”
Mustafa, of Thorncombe Road, Whalley Range, pleaded guilty to counts of possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine.