A drug dealer who used his ill-gotten gains to pay for four holidays in four months returned from a trip to Turkey to be greeted by police at the airport.
Detectives had built a case against Shazad Miah who had been sunning himself on a privately chartered boat and sending boastful photos to one of his runners in the UK, Essex Police said.
The 30-year-old, of Ashingdon Road, Rochford, was arrested when he returned from Turkey to Luton Airport on June 4 last year, the force said.
He had a drug line phone with him at the time and had been involved in supplying crack cocaine and heroin in Southend.
Essex Police said Miah was found guilty, after a trial at Basildon Crown Court , of being concerned in the supply of heroin and crack cocaine and possessing criminal property.
The force said he was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Police said the ‘Frankie’ drug line used 10 different mobile numbers to send out messages advertising the sale of Class A drugs.
Miah held the drug line phones across a period between February and June 2023, with up to five runners working under him on any given day.
During his time running the drug line, and without any other plausible source of income, Miah splashed out on four expensive holidays, the force said.
They were paid for from a business bank account and personal accounts, set up under a fake car hire business.
Using these accounts, he took in more than £30,000 in criminal profit, police said.
The day before his arrest, Miah was on a privately chartered boat in Turkey.
Unbeknown to him, detectives had long been building a case against him.
Officers had caught him on CCTV at a shop, a five-minute drive from his home, buying a sim card for one of the drug line phones.
Police raided his home on the day of his arrest, seizing evidence including more than £3,000 cash from a safe found at the property.
Officers also found a passport belonging to one of Miah’s suspected runners stowed inside the safe.
He had previously been convicted for drug dealing matters in 2013 and again in 2020, when he was jailed for 36 months.
Police believe an estimated 2.295kg of Class A drugs were supplied during Miah’s running of the ‘Frankie’ line, valued at around £191,000.
Detective Sergeant Rob Maile, of Essex Police, said: “Miah filtered in excess of £30,000 through various bank accounts, money we know was a result of Class A drug dealing.
“He was distanced from the harsh reality of crack cocaine and heroin use, which brings associated anti-social behaviour impacting our communities and a disastrous impact on the lives of those addicted to these substances.
“Instead, he used the profits of this drug line to fund holidays to Paris, Menorca, Amsterdam and Turkey – all within a four-month period.”
Officers are pursuing a Serious Crime Prevention Order against Miah, and are seeking to claw back his criminal gains under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
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