Newport taxi driver "absolutely shocked” to find heroin in car - court toldA NEWPORT taxi driver said he was “absolutely shocked” to find out he was transporting 3.8 kilograms of heroin.
Wasim Ali, of Harrow Road in Maindee, was stopped by police at Cleppa Park in the west of the city with heroin in a bag in the passenger seat footwell.
The 29-year-old is accused of involvement in a gang which brought more than £4 million of the drug into South Wales.
The Dragon Taxis driver said he had gone to Cardiff to pick up a customer in January last year but when he got there he was asked just to take a package back instead.
But on the way back to Newport police pulled him over, handcuffed him and told him he had drugs in the car.
Ali claimed he had had no idea of the nature of his cargo and assumed it was shoes or clothes.
“That’s when I got absolutely shocked,” Wasim Ali said. “I said no it’s not, it’s clothes.”
He added: “If I knew it was anything to do with drugs, I would have kicked that bag out there and then.
“All I can say is I knew nothing about it and I’m innocent.”
Wasim Ali is on trial alongside five other people, including Shazia Ahmed, of Lennard Street in Maindee, who is accused of providing a safe house to store cash from her shoe shop in Commercial Street.
On one occasion the 37-year-old is accused of looking after a suitcase full of more than £200,000 in cash for Imtiaz Ali, a drug dealer who the jury heard has previously pleaded guilty.
But she said she thought the reason he had the luggage was that he was planning to go on holiday.
Cardiff Crown Court heard yesterday (MON) that Imtiaz Ali, of Ebeneezer Terrace in Pill, brought a black case to her shop R’Evage on in November 2013 and left it in the storeroom.
In a police interview read to the court, Ahmed said she was preoccupied with her work so did not pay too much attention.
It did not seem unusual as she knew Imtiaz Ali, and had previously borrowed £1,500 from him, the court heard.
Ahmed told police: “I asked him, “Are you going on holiday or what?” He said, “Yeah, something like that”. I wasn’t taking any notice of him to be honest; I wanted to finish the work off and go home. He said, ‘I’m just going to leave this here and I will come back’.”
Ali and Ahmed are on trial along with Cardiff-based defendants 29-year-olds Umar Arif, of Laureate Close, Umar Butt, of Taff Embankment and Khalid Yassen, of Claude Road as well as 40-year-old Zawed Malik, of Park Road in Tameside, Greater Manchester.
All deny conspiracy to supply heroin.
Proceeding.
http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/g ... ourt_told/
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