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PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 7:51 am 
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Taxi driver caught with cocaine in car tells jury he never knew he had drugs

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornw ... ar-3116452

Abdaul Alboghobaish, aged 61, said he was given package but did not know what was inside

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Image: Penny Cross/Plymouth Herald

A taxi driver caught with a quarter of a kilo of cocaine in his car has told a jury he never knew he was carrying the drug.

Abdaul Alboghobaish, aged 61, said he had been given the package by a man in Coventry and told to bring it back to Plymouth – but he had no idea what was inside.

He also denied that several other trips he made to London for a matters of hours each time were to pick up cocaine or heroin.

Prosecutors claim city cabbie Alboghobaish brought drugs back to Plymouth for suspected gang leader Nathaniel Freeman.

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Alleged drugs gang ringleader Nathaniel Freeman outside Plymouth Crown Court (Image: Plymouth Live)

Alboghobaish admitted that he knew Freeman as a regular customer but said the Coventry trip was actually set up by another man called Antonio – who is not in the dock.

Eight people are facing a jury as part of an alleged plot to bring cocaine and heroin to Plymouth from London and the West Midlands – and in one case Jamaica.

Alboghobaish was stopped on the M5 near Exeter with a quarter of a kilo of cocaine hidden in his car on October 18 2017, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

Police tracked his journeys over the previous few months using mobile phone contacts with nearby masts and Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras.

Alboghobaish was challenged by his own barrister about three trips he made to London in July 2017, each time leaving Plymouth in the evening and returning from the capital in the early hours of the next day.

The defendant said he could not recall two of the journeys, saying he often took fares to London or went to visit a friend.

Alboghobaish said the other journey involved him taking co-defendant Jordane Morris to London from her home in Holsworthy.

He added she stayed at a house for an hour while he waited and then he took her home.

Morris is accused of taking a two-week holiday in Jamaica to smuggle back another quarter kilo batch of cocaine back to Britain in August to September 2017.

That trip was allegedly organised by Freeman, aged 33, but Alboghobaish is not accused of being involved in the smuggling.

Alboghobaish said he was sent by a man called Antonio from Plymouth to pick up his ex-partner in Coventry on October 18, 2017.

He added that he was diverted to a B&Q in the city to pick up a package close to the rendezvous with the woman.

Alboghobaish said a man passed him a package and he put it in the central console of his Mercedes.

The court heard that he picked up the woman but they were stopped and the drugs discovered on the return journey.

His barrister Ali Rafati asked him: “Did you have any idea that the package contained drugs of any kind?”

Alboghobaish replied: “No.”

Alboghobaish, of King Street, Stonehouse; Freeman, of Darmoor View, Saltash; Steven Doukoure, aged 25; Matthew Hitcham-Alexander, aged 23, of New George Street in the city centre; and 22-year-old Akiel Thomas, of North Road West, Stonehouse, have all denied two joint charges of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Freeman and Doukoure, of Hyde Park Road, Mutley; 27-year-old Morris, of North Road, Holsworthy; Ryan Chard, aged 37, of Grimscott near Bude, and Warren Campbell, aged 39, of Islington, London, all deny importing a Class A drug.

The trial continues.


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PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 10:54 am 
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Location: Stamford Britains prettiest town till SKDC ruined it
either he's incredibly stupid or telling porkies :lol:

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PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 7:54 pm 
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either he's incredibly stupid or telling porkies :lol:


Possibily both.


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PostPosted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 7:59 pm 
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Abdaul Alboghobaish, aged 61, said he had been given the package by a man in Coventry and told to bring it back to Plymouth – but he had no idea what was inside.

Your average job. :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 7:45 pm 
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Plymouth taxi driver and two others cleared of delivering drugs

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/p ... rs-3168963

Trio are acquitted of supplying heroin and cocaine as part of long-running city trial

A taxi driver caught with a quarter of a kilo of cocaine in his car is celebrating after he was cleared of knowingly trafficking the drug.

Abdaul Alboghobaish, aged 61, had his licence suspended after he was stopped by police on the M5 in October 2017.

He has been acquitted after a six-week trial which followed the collapse of the first hearing last November.

Fellow defendants Matthew Hitchman-Alexander, aged 23, and 22-year-old Akiel Thomas, have also been acquitted at Plymouth Crown Court.

Four others face jail after they were found guilty following 20 hours of deliberations of running a related plot to smuggle cocaine from Jamaica.

Mr Alboghobaish, Mr Hitchman-Alexander and Mr Thomas were never charged with importing the drugs from the famous Montego Bay resort.

Mr Alboghobaish was stopped on the M5 near Exeter with a quarter of a kilo of cocaine hidden in his car on October 18 2017, the jury heard.

He said that he had picked up a mystery package from a DIY store car park in Coventry, but had no idea he was collecting drugs.

Police tracked his journeys over the previous few months using mobile phone contacts with nearby masts and Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras.

In some of the most colourful evidence during the trial, Mr Alboghobaish told the jury how he was born in Iran and came to the UK in 1985.

Mr Alboghobaish, from King Street in Stonehouse, said he had been married three times and was supported in court by his third wife.

He added he had worked as a taxi driver for 15 years, working for companies including Taxifast and Silverline.

Mr Alboghobaish told the court he actually picked up a woman and the package from Coventry for a man called Antonio – whom he nicknamed ‘Bandana’ in tribute to the movie star Antonio Banderas.

Antonio was not part of the trial.

Prosecutors claimed he had been running drugs for gang leader Nathaniel Freeman.

Friends Mr Thomas and Mr Hitchman-Alexander denied selling cocaine and heroin which had been trafficked to Plymouth.

Mr Alboghobaish, Mr Hitchman-Alexander, of New George Street in the city centre and Mr Thomas, of North Road West, Stonehouse, were each cleared of joint charges of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs through 2017.


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 7:52 pm 
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Location: Stamford Britains prettiest town till SKDC ruined it
so he's incredibly stupid then :lol:

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