Men sentenced following £2.5million heroin seizure

Three men involved in supplying large quantities of heroin and cocaine have been sentenced at Bristol Crown Court following an investigation by the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU).

The court heard how James Lea, 34, from Gloucester would travel to meet Omar Hassanjee, 46, from Hall Green in Birmingham to collect drugs to supply to his South West-based customers.

The investigation showed numerous trips in April and May 2024, until officers arrested Lea at his home on Spartan Close on 16 May. Cocaine with a street value of £13k was seized, along with cash, scales, cling film, and other paraphernalia. Lea pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply and was sentenced to four years.

The investigation showed that Omar Hassanjee organised the supply of wholesale amounts of heroin and cocaine across the country. The scale of the supply was shown when SWROCU officers seized a large cardboard box containing 17 blocks of heroin on 18 May, which would be worth £2.5 million when sold on the street. The drugs were seized from a car being driven towards Birmingham by James Pokora, 45, of no fixed address with 26-year-old Mohammed Ishmail from Woodfield Road in Birmingham in the passenger seat.

Later the same day, £15k worth of high purity cocaine was seized from under the floorboards of Hassanjee’s safe house on Stoney Lane in Birmingham, which was cared for by Ishmail. His room contained a locked toolbox full of items used for preparing class A drugs.

Hassanjee used his own home on Shirley Road in Birmingham to store the money made from the dealing. During a search, officers found several envelopes and packages containing cash, which totalled £65k. He also had hundreds of packs of diazepam, a class B drug, and large boxes of counterfeit cigarettes. Envelopes and other packaging at his house matched that found in Lea’s house in Gloucester.

Hassanjee, Ishmail and Pokora all pleaded guilty. Ishmail was sentenced to eight years and three months for the supply of heroin and five years and three months for the supply of cocaine, to run concurrently. Pokora was sentenced to three years and nine months for the supply of heroin. Hassanjee will be sentenced at a later date.

DCI Adam Smith from SWROCU said: “Our specialist teams quickly established the intelligence and evidence needed to ensure maximum disruption and harm to this organised crime group, taking a huge amount of class A drugs off them – and away from our streets.

“This group was supplying class A drugs at a wholesale scale, but those same drugs would have ended up as clingfilm-wrapped street deals to vulnerable drug users in our communities. I’d urge people to keep reporting information about drug activity as it all helps build a picture and, ultimately, to target those higher up the chain.”

Detective Superintendent Mark Chicken from Gloucestershire Constabulary said: “This is another example of us working effectively and tirelessly with partners in the South West ROCU to tackle large scale drug dealers operating both inside and outside of county boundaries.

“It demonstrates our commitment to protecting communities from the scourge of drug supply and ensuring that those involved are not able to profit from their criminality and are brought to justice.”

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