A cocaine supply ‘middle manager’ caught with £72,000-worth of the class A drug in the glovebox of his car has been jailed for six years.
Former soldier Haythem Magdy Selim, 42, was stopped by police in a layby near Braithwaite, Keswick, on the early evening of May 18 because of an apparent irregularity with the number plate of his black BMW.
Selim claimed he was travelling back to West Cumbria having visiting Accrington to buy a spare part for his vehicle, but appeared “nervous and agitated”, Carlisle Crown Court was told.
But when officers searched the BMW, they found almost three-quarters of a kilo of cocaine — potentially worth £72,000 at street level, a detective had concluded — within three large bags the glove box, along with almost £400 cash elsewhere within the vehicle.
Incriminating WhatsApp chat found on a phone seized by police showed he was involved in drug supply, while telecoms and road camera data showed he had made almost a dozen trips between his native Whitehaven and Liverpool in different vehicles.
Indeed Selim had registered five cars in his name at various times in the period before the stoppage.
“The Crown would submit that was a process to detract from using the same vehicle and it being detected on a regular basis,” said prosecutor Gerard Rogerson.
A man of previous good character, Selim admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply. He was said to have committed the crime under pressure while owing a drug debt which, his lawyer said, “was simply not going away”.
Selim, of Irt Avenue, Whitehaven, was jailed for six years this morning.
“The supply of class A drugs, you will appreciate, is always serious,” he was told by Recorder Andrew Nuttall.
“This was not one supply but many. You have been involved in at least 11 trips.”
