Drug dealers who registered one of their “heroin hotlines” to Manchester City star Yaya Toure have been jailed for a total of 12 years.
Mohammed Yasin, 36, and Rashid Hussain, 26, both from Rochdale, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.
Both men were caught after officers confiscated five mobile phones – including one deceitfully registered to Ivory Coast international – which they had used as hotlines to supply crack cocaine and heroin to a chain of known addicts.
Police were notified of their criminal enterprise in March after Hussain was seen driving away from numerous people who police officers believed to be heroin users. If the police had run a 12 panel drug test, they would have been able to confirm if the group of individuals were using illegal narcotics but there was not enough evidence at the time to warrant the testing.
Later that month Hussain was noticed again, this time with Yasin, appearing to fish around on the floor near a road sign on Trafalgar Street, Rochdale.
Officers uncovered two white balls and two packages containing drugs for nearly 30 deals and arrested Yasin at the scene. Hussain ran off but was later arrested by police.
Phones
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While Hussain was in custody, an unknown woman contacted the network provider of his drug deal phone and attempted to report it lost in a bid to re-activate the lucrative line.
Another of the phones which belonged to Yasin. It had a hotline, known as the “Wolf line”, on which numerous local users would order drugs. The line received 280 calls and texts from 40 people in just eight days.
Hussain’s phone received nearly 2,100 calls and texts from 210 different numbers over the course of a month.
Hussain was sentenced to six years and four months and Yasin was jailed for five years and eight months.
PC Gabriel Gibson, based at Rochdale, said: “This case highlights the greed that motivates drug dealers.
“Both offenders were on their third strike having been convicted of drug dealing before, and had clearly not reformed their ways. Now they both have several years to decide on their future paths.”
