Jail for Wolverhampton drug dealer caught speeding in bus lane
A train track engineer who returned to drug dealing after a shooting incident near the home of a relative has been locked up.
Zain Ali had already been caught twice selling crack and heroin since April 2015, a judge heard.
The 26-year-old was released early on licence from that sentence in December last year but only returned to drug dealing after the May 24 shooting incident, the details of which were not revealed during the Wolverhampton Crown Court case.
Police stopped the defendant after spotting him speeding down a bus lane in a Renault Clio with false plates on June 14 and soon discovered it was a stolen car.
Ali was taken to a police station where a strip search revealed he had 63 wraps of cocaine, 42 wraps of heroin worth over £1,000, £155 cash and four phones, one of which was being used for drug dealing.
On the day of the arrest one of the messages read “available to do rapid drops.”
After being picked up he texted “I am in the back of a police car,” revealed Mr Antonie Muller who said the defendant was playing a significant role in street dealing.
Miss Rebecca Penfold, defending, said Ali tried to work normally between December and May but came under pressure to return to drug dealing which he did after the “shooting incident.”
No evidence to disprove this was found on his phones and Miss Penfold concluded: "He was forced to do what he did by a drug debt."
Ali, from Crosby Close, Whitmore Reans, admitted handling a stolen car and drug dealing.
He was sent to prison for four-and-a-half years by Judge Dean Kershaw who told him: "You were under some coercion and pressure but this is your third offence of this kind in a relatively short period of time."
