Slough men jailed over plot to shift £6.5 million cocaine haul as 'key workers'

Two Slough drug dealers have been jailed for more than a decade over a plot to sell millions of pounds of cocaine by posing as key workers.

Farrakh Mian, of Winvale, and Yousuf Khan, of Salt Hill Way, were each sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison on Friday (October 4).

Mian, 46, and Khan, 25, were sentenced alongside their accomplice Jake Dear, 31, of HMP Parc, who was jailed for eight years and eight months.  

Police Image of Jake Dear

Investigating officer Detective Constable Mark Southey, of South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU), said officers’ ‘unrelenting efforts’ had ‘brought these men to justice’.

Mian and Dear were stopped by police on May 4, 2020.

They were wearing high-visibility vests and driving vans; impersonating highway maintenance vehicles.

But when officers searched the vans, they found 30kg of cocaine in Mian’s and 15kg in Dear’s.

Khan, whose flat was being used as a drug safehouse where officers found another 20kg cocaine haul, was arrested the same day.

Police estimated the street value of drugs seized as around £6.5 million.

The trio were all found in possession of Encrochat phones when they were arrested.

These phones use a coded messaging system to stop police from gaining access to data.

Officers unearthed messages from the men’s phones that proved they had been responsible for supplying 491kg of Class A drugs in just three months – between March and May 2020.

Encrochat was taken down by international law enforcement that same year.

Mian, Khan and Dear, were charged in July 203 and all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Cocaine found in one of the men's vans.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Mark Southey, of SEROCU, said: “This OCG [organised crime group] tried to evade police by using encrypted messaging and by posing as key workers during the pandemic.

"However, as a result of the unrelenting efforts of the unit, we have been able to bring these men to justice and take a large quantity of drugs off the street, preventing it from entering our communities. 

“This is just one example of SEROCU’s commitment to tackling those who seek to bring harm to our communities through the supply of drugs.  

“If you have information about drug crime in your area, please report this to your local force by calling 101 or online. You can also make reports anonymously through the independent charity Crimestoppers by calling 0800 555 111 or via its website.”

Cocaine found in Khan's flat