Bristol drug dealer loses sentence appeal

A Bristol man whose premises became a front for a large-scale hard drugs operation has failed to convince top judges his seven-year jail term was too harsh.

Mohammed Ullah, 40, was jailed alongside his brother Nadeem Ullah, 32, after they were convicted of conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin at Bristol Crown Court in March last year.

Mohammed Ullah received a seven-year term, while his brother was sentenced to eight years.

Ullah, of Eastmead Lane, Stoke Bishop, ran a mail-order company Weapons Galore, which distributed martial arts weapons, on the Lawnwood Road Industrial Estate, in Upper Easton, but allowed the site to become an operations base for the narcotics. When officers moved in, they found 498g of cocaine hidden in a car, with a further consignment of heroin discovered at an accomplice's home.

A search of Ullah's home also revealed a quantity of chemicals "indicative of efforts to make crack cocaine", Judge Peter Beaumont QC told London's Criminal Appeal Court yesterday.

The judge, sitting with Lady Justice Hallett and Mr Justice Foskett, said the plot could not have happened without the "full involvement" of Mohammed Ullah.