Heroin and cocaine dealer to spend longer in prison

Bradford Crown Court heard that 23-year-old Asim Hussain was already serving eight years in HMP Leeds for selling drugs between Bradford and Barrow.

He was jailed in March 2022 and refused to attend court to be sentenced for a widespread drugs line that took in West and South Yorkshire.

Prosecutor Michael Greenhalgh said police in a marked patrol car stopped a Seat Leon on Waterlily Road on June 21, 2021. The driver was Asad Ahmed. The passenger, Tayyab Arshad, ran off.

A search of the car revealed half a kilo of crack cocaine, heroin, and cannabis as well as baseball bats, two “realistic-looking” BB guns, and drug-related equipment including blenders, scales, scissors, and plastic food bags.

The drugs, which were seized, had a street value of £32,000.

The case was heard at Bradford Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

Footage from CCTV cameras at the scene showed the Seat being used as “a stash car” to transfer drugs to a Mini in the 90 minutes before the police arrested Ahmed.

Ahmed, Arshad, and Adil Hussain were linked to the car by their fingerprints, which were found on the drug bags.

CCTV footage showed Asim Hussain and younger brother Adil handling bags of drugs, with Adil Hussain seen to be re-stocking runners on the street.

When police raided the brothers’ house on Waterlily Road they seized phones from their bedrooms that contained messages, contacts, saved names, locations, and “stock drug supply adverts” relating to the supply of crack and heroin in Barnsley, Bradford, Pontefract, Leeds, Lupset, and Normanton.

It was described as a “ring and bring” drugs supply service.

One advert, sent 67 times, read: “Dynamite W and B. Fat sizes. £10 shots. Spend £100 get one free. Quick service until 3am today. Tom”, with ‘W’ and ‘B’ being colloquial names for crack cocaine and heroin. “Shots” relate to the size of the deal.

Messages on the phones spanned the period from September to October 2021.

Another phone related to Bradford addresses and contained drug-related messages dating back to August 2018 with some involving Adil Hussain directing others. More drug-related messages were found on a phone seized from Arshad.

In September 2021 Asim and Adil Hussain were identified as running a county lines drug operation between Bradford and Barrow. They were arrested at home the following month and charged with the Cumbria offences.

Asim Hussain pleaded guilty and was jailed for eight years. Adil Hussain pleaded guilty to money laundering and received a community order.

In terms of the Bradford offences, all four men pleaded guilty prior to trial immediately after a jury was sworn in.

Mitigating for Adil Hussain, now 20, Nick Cartmell said the “sins of the older brother” should not be visited on Adil Hussain, who was just 17 at the time and was engaged in a “fetch and carry” role.

Mitigating for Arshad, now 23, Gerald Hendron said he had been abusing drugs at the time and “foolishly” became involved in drug-dealing to facilitate that.

Mitigating for Ahmed, now 24, Camille Morland said he had had a limited function and on the day was in the car to guard the drugs.

His Honour Judge Jonathan Gibson handed Asim Hussain a further two years to add to his existing eight-year sentence as he was the principal person involved with the stash car and had “substantial links” to others in a chain.

He said the Cumbria case related to a drugs line that was operated over a number of months.

He said: “Had the court known, when it sentenced him in 2022 to eight years, of this case as well that it would have added something to the overall picture.

“So it seems to me just and proportionate to add two years to his existing sentence.”

He said younger brother Adil Hussain was “under the influence” of the older man. Consequently, he jailed him for two years suspended for two years, and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the community.

Judge Gibson told Arshad, of Hartman Place, Bradford, that “with some considerable hesitation” he was also giving him a two-year jail sentence suspended for two years, plus 160 hours of unpaid community work and 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

Ahmed, of Lynton Drive, Bradford, was said to have no knowledge of wider drug dealing and was merely “guarding the drugs”. He was given a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years plus 150 hours of unpaid work and 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

He warned them to comply with the orders or face serving their sentences, adding: “There will be no messing about.”

The judge also ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs seized.