Drug-dealing law graduate gets jail term
A Drug-dealing law graduate was caught red-handed with a stash of cocaine, ecstasy, LDS, ketamine and cannabis.
Undercover police saw Jahidol Kamaj acting suspiciously in his car outside a Swansea supermarket and swooped on the vehicle, recovering the five different drugs along with hundreds of pounds in cash and a phone full of incriminating messages, some of which had been received just minutes before his arrest.
Sending the 32-year-old restaurant worker to prison, a judge at Swansea Crown Court told him he was clearly an intelligent man but had chosen an illegal way of making money.
Tom Scapens, prosecuting, said on October 22 last year plain clothes police officers involved in Operation Sceptre, a South Wales Police operation targeting knife crime, serious violence and drugs, were deployed in the Cwmbwrla area of Swansea when they saw a male in a VW car acting suspiciously in the car park of the CK supermarket.
As they watched, the driver was seen to be looking around and sending text messages before driving off. The officers followed the car a short distance and when it pulled over they moved in.
The court heard as soon as the driver’s door of the VW was opened the officers detected a “strong smell” of cannabis, and police then spotted two plastic tubs containing grip-seal bags of the drug.
In total the cannabis deals found had a street value of around £1,300.
Police also seized a mobile phone and £510 in cash. Kamaj then told officers he had further drugs in his sock, and police subsequently recovered wraps of ecstasy, ketamine and cocaine, and strips of paper containing LSD.
The court heard there were also cannisters of nitrous oxide – commonly known as laughing gas – in the car but no charges were laid in relation to those.
Jahidol Kamaj, of Morgan Street, Hafod, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply, possession of ketamine with intent to supply, possession of ecstasy with intent to supply, possession of cannabis with intent to supply, and possession of LSD with intent to supply when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.
Jon Tarrant, for Kamaj, said the defendant had completed a law degree but then could not afford the legal practice course, the post-graduate course taken to qualify as a solicitor, and had taken on two jobs before finding himself in financial difficulties. He said the restaurant worker “bitterly regrets” the course of action he embarked on to get out of his financial situation, and feels “remorse and shame” for what he did.
Judge Paul Thomas KC said Kamaj was clearly an intelligent man but had chosen to earn money by illegal means.
With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas, Kamaj was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence.
The judge asked the prosecutor why the case had taken to long to come to court, but Mr Scapens said he was unable to provide an explanation.