Nelson student was drugs ‘runner’ in £13,000 cannabis case

Waseem Khadam was helping in the dealing operation by packaging and transferring about 1,000 bags of the drug, discovered by police stashed away in a car in Rutland Street. His fingerprints were in the vehicle and he had the key.

Khadam, who came to England at 19 from a rural part of Pakistan where, he claimed, the police were corrupt, thought it was the same in East Lancashire and was said to have believed the man he claimed was the operation boss when he told him he “owned the police”, Burnley Crown Court heard.

An accomplice who played a smaller part in the enterprise, Abdul Munaf, was spared immediate custody. Khadam (20), of Holly Street, Nelson, who claimed all the profit from the supply was for somebody else, admitted two counts of being concerned in the supply of cannabis. He was sent to a Young Offenders’ Institution and will face a proceeds of crime hearing in April. He had no previous convictions.

Munaf (24), of Guilford Street, Brierfield, pleaded guilty to one cannabis allegation and was given 52 weeks in jail, suspended for two years, with 200 hours unpaid work.

Judge Beverly Lunt told Khadam, who had described himself as “one of the runners, a fetcher and a carrier” in the enterprise, he had access to and control of the drugs and had been entrusted with a large amount of cannabis. She continued: “There has to be an immediate custodial sentence to punish you and deter others from becoming involved in drug dealing as you have done.”

Mr Mark Lamberty (prosecuting) said cannabis was found in the glove box, under the seats and in the boot of the Honda Civic, parked outside a house. Khadam’s fingerprints were discovered in the boot, glove box and a blue carrier bag found under the seat.

In the house the car was parked outside, under the kitchen sink, was a blue plastic bag, with Khadam’s fingerprints on and in the shed outside was a grey plastic bag, which contained snap seal bags.

For Khadam, Mr Ken Hind said he had been given the key to the car the day before and did not have unique control over it.

He had just arrived from Pakistan at the time, was not known to the police and was the perfect person to be involved as he wasn’t going to be on the police radar and wasn’t going to be suspected. He was involved in helping to package the drugs and put them back in the car “away from the prying eyes of the police.”

Khadam had spent all his life in a rural village and his experience of the outside world was very limited. He started to smoke cannabis, owed £300 and got involved in the offences. The defendant had been hit, bullied, threats were made against his mother and he foolishly went got involved. The barrister said: “It is perhaps best described as almost duress, but not quite.”

Mr Hind said the defendant would not have had the means to buy drugs of such value or known where to get them. He added: “It all indicates there were far more sophisticated people behind him who were pulling the strings and he was just carrying out their wishes.”

Mr Anthony 0’Donohoe, defending Munaf, said he became embroiled due to his own cannabis use. He had had a loud and clear wake-up call. He was not workshy. The barrister added: “He has now abstained from cannabis. He fears the prospect of a custodial sentence.”