Jail for Class A dealers caught with crack and heroin in Telford

Haashim Safeer, 23, and Daanyaal Alias, 21, were found in a car in Malinslee with wraps of heroin and crack cocaine.

They and a third man, 29-year-old Adeel Alias, had been arrested by police five months before for dealing on the streets of Worcester.

The men - all from the Black Country - said they had been pressured to go to Telford to repay debts owed to a drug gang.

All three admitted possession of class A drugs with intent to supply at Worcester and Safeer and Daanyaal Alias also admitted possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply in Telford.

Pressure

At Shrewsbury Crown Court Judge Anthony Lowe, who was told the men were stopped in Telford five days before a court appearance in Worcester, jailed Safeer and Daanyaal Alias for three years and four months and ordered that Safeer serve three months of a previous suspended sentence.

He said he accepted there had been pressure on the two men to carry out the latter offence.

After hearing that Adeel Alias had been recruited at the last minute as the driver in Worcester he jailed him for 16 months but suspended the sentence for two years.

Kevin Jones, prosecuting, told the court that in August last year police confronted the three men in a car in Worcester.

A fourth man, believed to be a drug addict, was in the car clutching a £10 and a £5 note.

Safeer had £420 on him while Daanyaall Alias had 29 wraps of crack cocaine and 31 of heroin, with a street value of £610.

Suspicious

The three men were charged and given bail but in February police in Telford became suspicious of a VW car in Malinslee which had cloned number plates.

Mr Jones said that Daanyaall Alias, of Corporation Road, Dudley, and Safeer, of Lupin Road, Dudley were in the car.

Safeer was in possession of 18 wraps of heroin and 23 wraps of cocaine with a street value of £310 while Alias had £230 on him.

Mr Tarlowchan Dubb for the three men said Daanyaall Alias and Safeer had agreed to take the drugs to Telford to recoup the debt they were in for the drugs and money confiscated by police in Worcester.

He said Alias was just 21, a young man to be facing a long prison sentence. He felt responsible for getting his older brother involved in the Worcester offences.

Safeer, he said, was also a young man. They had pleaded guilty at the first chance.

Mr Dubb said Adeel Alias, of Corporation Road, Dudley, had felt obliged to help his younger brother and the offence had been completely out of character.