Five men jailed for plot to flood Manchester with over £300k of cannabis

(from top left, clockwise) Rafaqet Sadiq, Mohammed Butta, Christopher Manning, the drugs recovered by police, Ahmed Hadi and Imran Sabhane.

A drug dealer was linked to a plot to wholesale potent cannabis by litter he left at the gang’s warehouse.

A police raid last year revealed that a property at Woodlands Road, Cheetham Hill , had been converted to a cannabis “packing and distribution centre”.

One of the workers at the illicit depot, Ahmed Hadi, of Duchess Road, Crumpsall , made the mistake of leaving drinks bottles and cigarettes strewn about the property.

He has now been jailed for three years by a judge who concluded that the trash he abandoned in the house revealed he was ‘at home’ there.

The evidence – along with his ‘extensive’ previous convictions – meant that Hadi got more jail-time than four other men linked to the property by evidence found in the raid last June.

A total of 32kg of marijuana – with a street value of over £300,000 – was discovered, vacuum sealed into bulk deals and branded with names such as ‘Prince Naseem’ and ‘Liberty’.

Each sealed kilo of the drug was separated into 1oz deals for street supply at the address, which was unoccupied at the time of the raid, and had barely any furniture in it.

Convicted robber Ahmed Hadi, 29, of Duchess Road, Crumpsall, admitted possessing class B with intent to supply.

Miss Recorder Goode, sending him down, told him: “I take the view that the fact your fingerprints were there extensively indicates you have greater involvement. 

Your DNA was also found on drinks bottles and cigarette butts. It would appear from that evidence you were clearly familiar with the premises and at home there.”

Mohammed Bhutta, 29, of Handforth Grove, Longsight whose DNA was also found at the scene, admitted the same charge, and has been jailed for 32 months in his fifth drug conviction.

Rafaqat Sadiq, 30, of Galsworthy Avenue, Cheetham, was jailed for 32 months for the same charge, after his fingerprints were found at the scene. 

He also admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine, because he was found to be in possession of phones which referred to dealing ‘posh’ – street slang for the class a drug.

Imran Sabane, 28, of Windsor Road, Oldham, who has five previous drugs convictions, was also linked to the operation by fingerprints, and admitted possessing cannabis, and got 32 months.

Christopher Manning, 29, of Duchess Road, Crumpsall, who was subject to a suspended sentence for an earlier drugs offence at the time of the raid, admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply and breach, and was also jailed for 32 months.