JAILED: Career drug dealer from Walsall caught with two kilos of heroin

Sajid Khan, from Rushall in Walsall, had pleaded not guilty to possessing heroin with a street value of around £50,000 with intent to supply it, claiming he had been acting under duress.

But at a pre-trial hearing Khan, 48 and of Queens Road, changed his plea to guilty and was jailed for nine years and two months.

Prosecutor Michael Shaw told Warwick Crown Court that on December 15 police officers in the Foleshill area of Coventry were keeping watch on two men in a Peugeot 307.

£50,000 worth of heroin

Khan, who was on licence at the time from a sentence for money laundering, was the driver – and the police stopped the car shortly after the second man got into the passenger seat.

Khan was asked if there was anything illegal in the vehicle, and immediately admitted: “There’s two ki’s in the back.”

And in a carrier bag in the rear footwell the officers found two 1kg blocks of heroin, sealed in layers of clingfilm and wrapping tape, worth just under £50,000.

Following his arrest, Khan’s home was searched, and items were found including duct tape, parcel tape and a face mask.

“That was consistent with him having packaged the two kilos from a larger amount,” commented Mr Shaw.

Before the car had been stopped, one of the men from the Peugeot had been seen close to a Seat parked in Foleshill – and in it the police found around £15,000 in cash.

Judge Peter Cooke ordered the money to be forfeited after hearing that ‘not surprisingly’ no-one had come forward to claim it.

'We know where your family live'

When he was interviewed Khan said that following his release from prison in June last year he had received a call from people saying he owed them £30,000 as a result of his arrest on the money laundering offence.

He said he was told they knew where his family lived, and he then had a call telling him to go to Palfrey Park in Walsall where he was given instructions to make a drugs run to Coventry, and that he had done so under duress.

But Mr Shaw pointed out that it was the fourth time Khan had been convicted for drug-dealing offences.

He had been jailed for 12 months at Wolverhampton Crown Court in 1997 for possessing heroin with intent to supply it, for two-and-a-half years at the same court in 2000 for being concerned in the supply of heroin, and for eight years at Luton Crown Court in 2008 for possession with intent.

“He is, we say, a professional drug dealer who has made his living, only interrupted by increasing spells in prison, by selling class A drugs. When he’s not in prison he’s back dealing drugs on a commercial scale.”

'Courage to plead guilty'

Richard Butcher, defending, said: “Mr Khan has finally had the courage to plead guilty to this very serious offence.

“It is quite clear he has been, over the course of his life, connected with class A drug dealing at various levels. He was clearly someone who was trusted to take significant quantities of drugs from A to B.”

Jailing Khan, Judge Cooke told him: “You have lived your life as a heroin dealer for 22 years, when not serving prison sentences.

“This is a case that brings you within the ‘significant’ category. That means a starting point in the range of six-and-a-half to ten years.

“The starting point in your case must be in the upper bracket of that because of the quantity, and it’s then further aggravated by your convictions and that you did this while you were subject to licence.”

And he explained that took it to a sentence of 11 years before giving Khan credit for his guilty plea.