Thousands of nitrous oxide canisters and an array of other ‘party drugs’ were all seized by police from a car.
Officers were out on patrol in the Radford area when a car travelling along Prospect Street started to arouse their suspicions.
As police were getting ready to bring it to a halt, the car pulled over suddenly, with officers getting out to speak to its three occupants – Naheem Akhtar, Asim Haque and Manawar Ali.
Little did the police know at that point but the vehicle they were approaching actually had multiple boxes of so-called ‘laughing gas’ as well as deals of cocaine, MDMA and cannabis on board.
Before this discovery could be made, Ali tried to make a run for it but didn’t get far before he was found hiding in a nearby garden, along with a bag containing small amounts of cocaine and cannabis.
After escorting Ali back to the car, police then carried out a thorough search of the vehicle, where they quickly found several boxes filled with more than 2,500 nitrous oxide canisters, as well as packs of balloons.
A plastic bag – which was later found to have the fingerprints of driver Akhtar on it – was also found underneath one of the seats and contained quantities of MDMA and cannabis, as well as weighing scales and hundreds of deal bags.
At that stage, Akhtar, Haque and Ali were all arrested and brought into custody to be properly searched, at which point Ali questioned whether he’d still be able to go a student party they were heading to.
Multiple sealed bags of cocaine and cannabis were then found hidden inside Akhtar’s underpants during a search by officers, while Haque was found to be concealing a phone that had messages referring to the sale of cannabis and nitrous oxide on it.
Following their arrests on 20 October 2018, a search was carried out of Akhtar’s home, which led to quantities of MDMA and nitrous oxide canisters being discovered.
A separate search was also carried out of Ali’s home, which led to a small cannabis grow being found by police.
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