‘futile’ | 

Two drug dealers caught with cocaine in secret car glove box jailed

‘The hide in Malushi’s car was ultimately a futile attempt to conceal his criminality’

Neil Fetherstonhaugh

Today at 06:40

Two drug dealers who stashed two-and-a-half kilos of cocaine in a secret compartment of a car glove box in a “futile” bid to conceal their criminality have been jailed in the UK.

Albanian nationals Orest Malushi (44) from Barnet, and Olsian Vogli (31) from Birmingham, have been jailed for a total of almost eight years after cops found the drugs as well as £100,000 in cash inside a flat.

Officers from the Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) – a joint National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Service unit – arrested the pair beside Malushi’s car in Hendon, north London, in July last year.

OCP officers who had them under surveillance watched as Vogli entered and left a flat on Caversham Road that he used as a stash house shortly before the arrest.

When officers moved in and searched a black rucksack he was carrying, they discovered it contained half a kilo of cocaine.

They also found three mobile phones and another two-and-a-half kilos of cocaine which had been hidden inside a specially adapted compartment in the glovebox of Malushi’s car.

More than £100,000 in cash and a mobile phone with several SIM cards were found in a search of the apartment.

Malushi and Vogli were sentenced to two years and six months and five years and four months respectively at Harrow Crown Court (sitting at Willesden Magistrates’ Court), having pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply during previous hearings at St Albans Crown Court.

Andrew Tickner, from the Organised Crime Partnership, said the cocaine supplied by Olsian Vogli and Orest Malushi was clearly generating large profits for the organised crime group they belonged to, “as shown by the amount of cash we found in the apartment”.

“The hide in Malushi’s car was ultimately a futile attempt to conceal his criminality, but shows the time and attention that drug suppliers will put into their criminal profession,” Tickner added.

“The class A drugs trade fuels gang violence and suffering in the UK, which is why the NCA and Met Police’s strong partnership is at the forefront of dismantling the organised criminal groups behind it.”