Three men who ran a large drug distribution network from a Waltham Forest flat have been jailed. 

Albanian nationals Lutfi Muja, Urim Bardhoshi and Egzon Qarri used a flat in Rolls Court, Highams Park, to cut and prepare class A drugs for dealers. 

The men were seen handing over a kilo of cocaine during a surveillance operation by the National Crime Agency. 

Officers observed Muja, 28, get into a taxi outside his house in Myddleton Road, Bowes Park, and followed him as he was taken along the North Circular to Highams Park, where he met Bardhoshi on July 19, last year. 

The pair exchanged bags before the taxi was pulled over by police shortly afterwards. 

Muja was arrested and a kilo of cocaine, which was destined for dealers in Birmingham, was seized. 

Bardhoshi, 20, was also arrested after trying to run away from officers. 

During a search of Bardoshi’s flat in Rolls Court, his cousin Egzon Qarri, 22, was arrested.

 

East London and West Essex Guardian Series:

Drugs seized by NCA officers

Officers seized scales, other drug dealing paraphernalia, mobile phones, two fake Italian identity cards, 50,000 Euros and a further two tape-wrapped packages each containing around a kilo of cocaine. 

They also discovered dealer lists detailing £400,000-worth of drug transactions. 

All three men pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply class A drugs, with Bardhoshi also admitting money laundering and possessing a false identification. 

On Tuesday (April 14), a judge at Reading Crown Court sentenced Bardoshi to nine years, Muja to six years and Qarri to five years in prison.

 

East London and West Essex Guardian Series:

Albanian drugs dealers used a base in Highams Park, Waltham Forest

They face deportation after serving the sentences.

NCA Operations Manager Gary Matthews said: “These men were involved in the wholesale supply of drugs to dealers in London and beyond, and their enterprise was brought to an end as a result of a painstaking surveillance operation.

“The strength of evidence gathered led to them entering guilty pleas.

“Organised criminal networks involved in drug dealing should know that we don’t get tired of pursuing them, disrupting their activities and stopping them causing damage to communities.”