Drug dealer who went on four holidays in four months is jailed after airport arrest

A drug dealer has been jailed following his arrest at a UK airport after returning from his fourth holiday in four months.

Shazad Miah, 30, was sentenced to nine years in prison earlier in August after he was found guilty of being concerned in the supply of heroin and crack cocaine and possessing criminal property.

Essex Police said he was greeted by officers at Luton Airport on 4 June last year after returning from a holiday to Turkey while in possession of a drug line phone and had been involved in supplying crack cocaine and heroin in Southend.

Miah, of Rochford, held phones used in the ‘Frankie’ drug line – which used 10 different mobile numbers to advertise the sale of Class A drugs – from February to June 2023, the force said.

While running ‘Frankie’, and without any other plausible income, he used the money to fund holidays to Paris, Menorca, Amsterdam and Turkey in the space of four months.

The excursions were paid for from a business bank account and personal accounts that were set up under a fake car hire business.

Miah, who had up to five runners working under him in Southend on any given day, took in more than £30,000 in criminal profit, police said.

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The day before his arrest, Miah was sunning himself on a privately chartered boat in Turkey – sending boastful pictures to one of his runners back in the UK.

Essex Police’s Operation Raptor team had been carrying out an investigation into the drug line, and caught Miah on CCTV buying a sim card for one of the phones used.

On the day of his arrest, officers raided Miah’s home in Rochford and seized evidence, including more than £3,000 in cash and a passport belonging to one of his suspected runners from a safe at the property.

The force also believes an estimated 2.295kg of Class A drugs were supplied during Miah’s running of the ‘Frankie’ line, which they valued at around £191,000.

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Detective Sergeant Rob Maile said: “Miah had runners deposit cash into his bank accounts whilst he was on holiday, which he then used for further expensive purchases.

“We traced his links to the drug line phones, we traced his financial activity and we traced his movements to build a solid case against him.”

Miah had pleaded not guilty to the drugs charges.

He was previously twice convicted for drug dealing matters in 2013 and in 2020, where he was jailed for 36 months.

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Miah told Basildon Crown Court he sold cannabis and used bank accounts to launder drug money to use for holidays, but insisted he had no involvement in selling Class A drugs and was a runner for a drug dealer named ‘Frankie’.

He was sentenced on 8 August.

Essex Police is now pursuing a serious crime prevention order against Miah, which officers say “would significantly restrict his ability to reoffend upon his release”.

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