Five Manchester men jailed as police bust drugs network during routine stop-check

Five members of an organised crime group involved in drug supply in Manchester have been jailed.

Sadek Shek, Imran Hossain, Muteeb Tahir, Jawwad Iqbal-Wahid - all residents of Longsight - and Michael Gill of Burnage were found guilty of conspiracy to supply cocaine, MDMA, cannabis and ketamine.

They sourced large amounts of drugs and distributed them to regular customers using a property on Westbank Road in Burnage as a safe house to store the substances.

Police officers stumbled on their drugs syndicate during a routine stop-check in October 2018.

They stopped Iqbal-Wahid, 25, and Hossain, 29, when the duo were speeding in a black Audi A3 car in Levenshulme and the vehicle smelt strongly of cannabis. A search revealed several snap bags of cannabis.

They were arrested and the mobile phones seized from them showed text messages arranging drug dealing in South Manchester and beyond. One of the phones was used as a drug line operated by Shek, 25.

Detectives from Xcalibre Task Force later raided Shek’s property in Longsight in February 2019 and found cocaine and cannabis along with cash and drug-related call cards in seven mobile phones.

Further investigation showed Gill, 33, worked as a “warehouseman” and Tahir, 27, was Shek’s key customer.

In October 2019, 4.8 kg of MDMA, nearly 2 kg of cannabis and substantial amounts of ketamine and other drugs with a combined street value of £220,000 were found during a search conducted in a property.

Manchester Crown Court has jailed Shek for 10 years and Iqbal-Wahid for three years while Hossain and Tahir have been sentenced to six-year jail terms each.

Gill is jailed for six years and nine months.

Detective sergeant Mark Graham said their main aim was to make a profit by supplying class A and class B and they received their payments by meeting at specific places and using passwords as they tried to attempt to stay undetected.