Somali drugs gang dealer who wanted to 'take over Swindon' put behind bars

Abdifalah Mohamed, who used the street name Marcos, preyed on a vulnerable local addict promising her hundreds of pounds a week to work for him.

However in reality she was only given £40 for her first week's work and then was threatened and intimidated to continue selling £20,000 of heroin and crack for him.

And when the 25-year-old Londoner was arrested on a flying trip to Swindon the woman was so scared she went to the police for protection.

Fearing the dealers higher up the chain she marched into the police station and plonked 62 wraps of drugs on the counter and told about what had been going on.

Ian Fenny, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how Mohamed and friend Denzel Mattis, 24, came to town from the capital in the spring of 2015.

He said they met up with the woman and recruited her to sell to local addicts on their behalf.

"He told her he was part of a Somali led drugs group who were keen to come to Swindon and take over," he said.

"He offered her £300 a week to act as his agent, or to use the term he did - runner, so she would sell class A drugs on to others in Swindon as directed."

She sold £500 worth of heroin and crack a day, paying takings into Mohamed's bank account when he didn't come to collect it.

But after six weeks things went wrong when the two men were arrested in a Smart Car on the morning of Monday, June 8, on the edge of town.

Mr Fenny said it was found the pair had been in Swindon for 17 minutes that morning, presumably dropping off stock with the woman.

While they were being questioned another member of the gang phoned her and issued threats to her and her family leaving her so scared she went to the police and told all.

She said she sold up to £1,000 of drugs a day, though on average it was half that, making a total of £20,000 from about a quarter of a kilogram of heroin and crack.

During the six weeks she was dealing for them, she made deposits of £370, £308, £410 and £600 into Mohamed's account.

The car the men were in belonged to Londoner Roemello Green, 22, and all three had been messaging each other about the drugs they were supplying.

Mattis, Mohamed, and Green, all pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin and crack between April 30 and June 10, 2015.

Laban Leake, for Mohamed, said his client is a father of two who had never been to prison before and hoped to work as a gas engineer when he gets out. He said he got involved in the drugs gang to fund his own addiction to cannabis.

Meredoc McMinn, for Mattis, said his client was just the driver and had worked as a gas fitter for EDF before being remanded in custody.

Andrew Taylor, for Green, pointed out there was no violence in the offending and his client played a lesser role.

Jailing the men Judge Robert Pawson told Mohamed: "You recruited her as a runner. You were not quite so stupid to deal in the street yourself.

"You got someone else more vulnerable to do that for you. You controlled her with threats.

"You might want to consider if the roles were reversed and that was a young woman you cared about how you would feel."

Mattis was jailed for three years and nine months and Green for three years.

Speaking after their sentencing PC Matthew Barnett, of the Dedicated Crime Team, said: “This case sends out a clear message that drug dealing will not be tolerated by the police or the courts in this town. We will continue to work tirelessly to identify, arrest and prosecute people involved in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin, especially those that target and abuse the most vulnerable people within our community.

“The police and courts take the coercion of the vulnerable seriously and that has been reflected in the sentences passed to these three men.

“We would like to continue to appeal to the local community to pass information about drug dealing taking place in your area on to us - I hope that sentences like this will show that we will always act on information we receive.”