A pair of hapless drug dealers from East London tasked an addict with stealing their phone back from a police station, a court has heard. Mustafa Daud and Osman Ishmail sent the vulnerable man into Swansea Central police station to claim the Nokia burner phone was his – but officers saw through the rudimentary ruse, Swansea Crown Court heard this week.
Georgia Donohue, prosecuting, told the court that on February 24 this year police in Swansea stopped a vehicle in the Landore area which intelligence indicated was linked to an on-going investigation into a London-based drugs supply operation known as the ‘Marcus King line’. At the wheel of the car was Daud and beside him in the passenger seat was Ishmail.
The court heard the defendants and the car were searched but no drugs were found. Police did however seize a Nokia burner phone from the centre console of the vehicle which both defendants denied any knowledge of. The pair were released with no further action being taken, WalesOnline reports.
Later that day, Ishmail and Daud attended Swansea Central police station with a man who was known to officers to be a drug-user. The man claimed the phone which officers had taken possession of earlier that day was his. Suspicious, officers spoke to the male in private and he disclosed that the phone was not his but he had been told to say it was. The defendants were arrested.
The court heard police were not able to unlock the Nokia but could access its SIM card and discovered it was the ‘Marcus King’ drugs line. They found outgoing bulk messages related to the supply of drugs including messages advertising the ‘best of both’ – a reference to heroin and cocaine.
The investigation also found that the drugs phone had co-located with Daud’s personal phone during a journey from London to Swansea, and had co-located with both defendants’ phones on a number of days in February when it had been sending out bulk messages.
The sentences
Mustafa Daud, 43, of Cunningham Avenue, Silvertown, London, and 39-year-old Osman Ishmail – formerly of Woodford Road, Blaenymaes, Swansea but now of a hotel on Oystermouth Road in Swansea – had both previously pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin and being concerned in the supply of cocaine when they appeared in the dock for sentencing.
Daud has 12 previous convictions for 27 offences including possession of crack cocaine with intent to supply in 2011, being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine in 2018, and being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin and failing to comply with the requirements of a serious crime prevention order in 2022 for which he was sentenced to 67 months in prison.
Ishmail has 37 previous convictions for 65 offences including possession of crack cocaine with intent to supply in 2014, and possession of heroin and cocaine with intent to supply in 2021 for which he was sentenced to four years in prison. With one-third discounts for their guilty pleas Ishmail was sentenced to 67 months in prison and Daud to 72 months.
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