Reader TTS

AWALE AHMED WAS FOUND IN POSSESSION OF DRUGS WHEN POLICE NOTICED HIM 'CONSTANTLY PLACING HIS HANDS NEAR HIS CROTCH' 13:25, 01 Jun 2025 A former drug dealer has been jailed after he

spent half a decade on the run in Birmingham. Awale Ahmed was found with a "party pack" of cocaine and MDMA during a bust back in 2019. The now 29-year-old was caught out after

police saw him "constantly placing his hands near his crotch" in his car. Ahmed failed to show up for his subsequent day in court, and in the years since has become "older and

wiser" and with ambitions to "lead an honest life" as a bus driver, his defence lawyer said. READ MORE: MIDLANDS AREA WHERE HOMEOWNERS SAW £45,000 WIPED FROM VALUE OF

PROPERTIES READ MORE: DAD WHO EXPERIENCED 'TERRIBLE BACK PAIN' DIED NINE DAYS AFTER GOING TO HOSPITAL Article continues below Liverpool Crown Court heard that Ahmed's white

Ford Focus on Berry Street on February 1 2019. Ahmed, of Holland Street in Kensington, was described as "seeming nervous" and "constantly placing his hands down near his

crotch area", with officers also noting a strong smell of cannabis. Olivia Belle, prosecuting, detailed how a bag of cocaine was thereafter recovered from his back pocket. When asked

whether he had any further drugs upon his person, Ahmed then lifted up his jacket in order to produce a further package from his waistband and said: "It's just a party pack."

This was subsequently found to contain quantities of both cocaine and MDMA. A search of his home address thereafter saw paraphernalia, including a set of scales, recovered by PCs, while

"multiple messages" advertising drugs for sale were also discovered on his mobile phone, Liverpool Echo reports. Ahmed had been due to appear before Sefton Magistrates' Court

in relation to this matter on August 18 2020, but a warrant for his arrest was issued after he failed to appear on this date. Another arrest warrant had earlier been issued in his name after

he did not turn up for a previous court hearing on November 4 2019, relating to breaches of a suspended sentence order he was handed in 2018 for possession of a class B drug with intent to

supply after he skipped three appointments with the Probation Service in August and September 2019. He was ultimately arrested on April 18 this year when he was spotted by PCs on Lodge Lane

in Toxteth. Ahmed has a total of eight previous convictions for nine offences dating back to 2009, including an earlier entry for possession of cannabis with intent to supply in 2015. Ken

Heckle, defending, told the court: "What essentially happened, in simple terms, is that his last drug conviction in 2018 led to people coming back to him again and saying 'you have

got to start dealing again'. "He is not saying that he was forced or anything of that ilk, but he felt pressured, in his mind, that he should cooperate with that. "It is low

level dealing. He says that he was given a phone and some drugs. As a result of that, he then took the decision that has come back to bite him today. "He did not want to continue. The

only way he could think of doing it was leaving the area. "He goes to Birmingham. For the last five or six years, he has either been in Birmingham or Liverpool. "He has had casual

work and cash in hand jobs, but also official jobs at factories and warehouses in his correct details. "He has done qualifications. He has been to college and done a course with

Liverpool Council. He has got a security qualification. He even got married in 2020. In 2023, sadly, he was divorced. "He would like the court to accept that he is a changed man. He is

wiser. He is older. He has led a pretty blameless working life and wanted to better himself. "He wants to do this sentence. He will no longer have the associates and problems which

befell him on the last occasion. "He talks about wanting to do a HGV qualification or bus driving. He wants to lead an honest, industrious life as he has tried to do for the last five

or six years. "He asks the court to pass a sentence that gives him some hope for the future, rather than crushing his resolve." Ahmed admitted possession of cocaine and MDMA with

intent to supply and two counts of breaching a suspended sentence order. He was jailed for three-and-a-half years. Judge Denis Watson KC, sentencing, said: "You absconded and decided to

take yourself away from the area. It was a deliberate decision. Article continues below "You have kept out of trouble, and you have been in work."