Taxi driver caught with drugs in car

AN Oldham private-hire driver caught red-handed with more than half a million pounds of cocaine in his car, claims he was set up.

Ali Shan (32) said he was a naive and innocent victim of criminals who took advantage of his simple nature.

A jury at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard that Shan had unwittingly been videoed by undercover police officers as he drove to an address in Manchester’s Whalley Range, where he picked up the packaged drug from a house.

He was then tailed back across the city as he headed for Oldham town centre to make a pre-arranged delivery of the drug to a middle-man.

Police stopped his grey Vauxhall Vectra on the A62 and arrested him after finding the package in the footwell of the front passenger seat.

The court was told that Shan when interviewed at Oldham police station said: “It’s the first time I’ve done it.”

David Pickup, prosecuting, said police clearly understood him to be referring to running drugs, but Shan insisted in court he had been frightened and confused when arrested.

He said he had not understood why he had been stopped, and had thought he must have driven through a red traffic light, or been caught by a speed camera.

The court was told that at first, he fabricated a story to cover himself, saying the package had been left in his car by a previous customer, and he had been taking it back to the office of Royton Cars for whom he worked as a driver.

He later admitted that he had picked up the package from the address in Whalley Range, in June, 2009, after agreeing to do it as a private job, at the request of a man he knew only as Ahmed.

He said in court he had had no idea what had been in the bag, and a far as he was concerned, he was simply doing his job as driver.

Mr Pickup said his version of events was full of discrepancies, and suggested: “Mr Shan, you are a liar through and through. You knew full well what you were carrying on that evening, and you were acting as a drugs courier.”

Shan insisted he had never had anything to do with drugs, and told the jury: “Someone has taken advantage of me, because I am a simple person. I’m not clever, and perhaps a bit naive.”

Shan is one of six who are on trial having pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to supply illegal drugs — five men and one woman.

A father and son who were said to be the masterminds behind the huge operation worth well over a million pounds, have already pleaded guilty to their part in running the business.

Fazal (43) and 20-year old Faisal Hussain, both from Cranbrook Street, Oldham, organised payment and collection through a network of agents and couriers, conducting their affairs via untraceable pay-as-you-go mobile phones which they frequently changed.

Before the court are Shan of Gainsborough Avenue, Oldham who pleads not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to supply a Class A drug, as does Afraq Ahmed (31), of Grendon Avenue, Oldham; Mehreen Khalid (21), of Bredbury; Michael West (21), of Hollins Street, Greenacres; and Yasir Mahmood (25), of Brompton Street, Oldham.

Habib Rehman (36,) of Slough, Berkshire, pleads not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to supply cannabis.

Fazal and Faial Hussain have pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to supply including heroin and cocaine, as have two other men.

(Proceeding)